When news reached our office that our new neighbour was none other than handbag designer Jessica Jensen, well, we were overjoyed. Why? A few reasons:
1. Creative folk seem to flock to our home (The Burroughes Building) and we simply love the energy that comes along with them.
2. She is absolutely delightful, genuine, humble, sweet and passionate about what she does. She even brought us heart-shaped cookies upon visiting!
3. There are handbags for sale on the fourth floor. ‘Nuff said.
Here’s what we learned from our visit with JJ:
There are some designer collaborations coming down the pipeline:
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New York-based designer Alexander Berardi and Jensen are teaming up once again to come out with some new designs (they did LGFW spring 2010 together last year).
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Arthur Mendonça for Jessica Jensen. “Arthur is wonderful, because he catapults me in directions that I wouldn’t have otherwise gone. It’s always fun to work with another designer for that reason; different creative philosophies and directions lead us to be pushed in new directions. It’s awesome.” Cheers to that.
- Another venture Jensen has taken on is designing for the International Film Fashion Festival (IFFF). Four designers have been asked to pair up with a local filmmaker and design a handbag that goes hand in hand with their short film.
On the horizon, expect to see more evening clutches that work for day or night, and a move to metallic leathers, textures and iPad cases and sleeves. With tanneries in Italy, and suppliers in NYC, Japan, Hong Kong and China, life is busy for this lady.
And we all love a good piece of gossip – rumour has it that Jensen may soon be running a Canadian company’s handbag division, designing collections for this unnamed company alongside her own brand.
Readers, keep your ears to the ground and your eyes peeled.
-xoxo, Gossip Girl(s)
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