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Jessica Rich:
THE SHOE BOSS IN THE MAKING
Jessica Rich is one to watch. The self-made American shoe designer broke into the industry 6 years ago after launching her first official collection, “Transparent by Jessica Rich.” Rich is the first black shoe designer to garner a deal with American luxury department store Nordstrom and her namesake brand is now sold within 20 of its department stores in America. WOTC editor-in-chief Phadria Prendergast, caught up with the “IT girl” to discuss growing up without a father figure, starting her brand with 1500 dollars and how she became a go-getter.
Interview Phadria Prendergast
Phadria: Talk to me about your upbringing. What was it like for you growing up as a young girl? Was entrepreneurship something that even ran in your family?
Jessica: My mom was a single parent. She was a very hard worker — she had two jobs so she was never home. She was always nine to five and five to 10 or 11. So I watched my mom struggle to make sure we had a roof over our heads and food to eat. My dad wasn't really around and my brother's dad wasn’t really around, so I’ve definitely seen the struggle. She [my mom] never really said to me, “Jessica, build your own brand.” That was never her thing. She just taught me to be self-sufficient and to never rely on a man to do anything, (laughs).
Phadria: (Laughing) I think that's some pretty brilliant advice.
Jessica: It was, but yes, it was a very strict upbringing as well. My mom was very strict with me. I'm talking, I couldn’t wear makeup until I was 18 years old. I couldn’t get my nails done until I was 18. I couldn't date until I was 18. I couldn’t go out of the house without parental approval. It was insane. It was like a prison almost, but looking back now, I understand why. I have tough love as well.
Phadria: And was your mom someone that inspired you?
Jessica: Yes, my mom inspired me because she made everything look so easy. Even though she hated working two jobs, even though she hated not having a father figure around for my brother and I, she did it so gracefully to the point that I felt as though she liked it. I didn't really hear about complaints until I got older. I see a lot of her in myself now that I'm older. People say, “uh, how do you do what you do?” And I'm like, “it's so easy. What do you mean? (Laughs)”
Phadria: I love that and talk to us about the Jessica Rich brand before it was Jessica Rich because as I understand it, you had a clothing brand before your shoe brand. Tell us about that. Is clothing something you'd ever get back into again?
Jessica: You know, no. I was in PR and marketing and I was building clothing brands. So after a contract I had, went away, I sat there panicking, and I’ll never forget this. It was 2015 and I remember thinking “what am I going to do?” My rent and my Mercedes were 5K a month, (laughs). So I had learnt the ropes through previous clients who had clothing lines and I used to have a jewellery line, which I started before my PR company in 2012. I also knew how to buy and sell everything online. All my influencer friends were wearing dresses so I started giving them my products and telling them to promote the Jessica Rich Collection on Instagram and that’s what started my online store. I did that for two years.
Then, the guy I was dating at the time told me to start a different brand. And I remember thinking “what am I gonna start?” And he told me to do shoes. I pondered the idea for about six months and after seeing my closet of shoes, I was like “wait, there's a certain style that I like, why not start with that idea?” And so I did one design and it went viral.
Phadria: That's very interesting. Tell us more about your career in PR, running your own agency and being in that world. I'd imagined that all those relationships from then are useful and helpful to you now. Right?
Jessica: Yeah! I don't know how I did it but I had a lot of connections, so I started giving out my shoes and my clothing to all my friends to post and support me, but I’m genuinely cool with all these people. I've stayed in contact with them. People in LA understand that you have to stay in contact with your connections because everyone wants to be in a certain circle, so it can come off very “beggy” if that makes sense.
Phadria: That makes sense. So when you started out in PR and you started charging people for things, what was going through your head? What was your vision for it? What services were you offering?
Jessica: I did social media posting, influencer gifting, and gifting your products to let's say 10 influencers a month. Getting that content, tracking deliverables, you name it. Of course, product gifting to celebrities is never guaranteed, but it's all about getting it into their hands versus trying to figure out where to send it. I took it directly to the source, so there are a lot of things that we offered.
Phadria: And talk to me about people being a currency and how important it is to have strategic relationships and a network, especially in this industry. So for the young women that may be new to entrepreneurship or that look up to you or want to know more about you or understand the industry more, especially in fashion, and as a black woman, what would you say about the importance of having relationships and a network and being able to manage them so successfully the way you have done?
Jessica: It's very important. I get a lot of girls messaging me and saying “I'm scared and I'm nervous” and I'm like, “okay, you're scared and nervous but then you're in the position that you're in now and you wanna be further, so do you think that anyone successful got there by being scared?” No! You have to put your foot out, you have to try. You have to really, really, really believe in yourself because number one, if you don't believe in yourself then no one's going to believe in you.
Our society needs to really understand that as African American women, we are very powerful. We are the culture, we are looked up to by so many different people — men, women, you name it. I feel as though even for any other race, it's very important just to believe as a woman you can do whatever you want.
Phadria: I agree.
Jessica: As for relationships, even with me, there are some celebrities that I don’t know and, if I can't contact them by DM or don’t know someone that knows them, and I see them in person — for instance I was in New York for Fashion Week and l was out with friends. I got up from the table because I saw Star Jackson walking down the steps. So I'm like, “gimme one second.” And I left the table and ran over. So it took a lot for me still to do that, especially where I'm at because it's going up to someone and I’m sure they get this all day long and you don't want to be that person, but I'm sorry, you wanna be that person. Cause by that one conversation about that one shoe, I mean, who knows?
Phadria: Absolutely. I agree with you there and I did the very same thing at London Fashion Week. I feel like especially during Fashion Week, people can be so standoffish and to themselves. But for me, I am going to go up to you. I'm going to introduce myself to you. I'm going to tell you how much I love your work and just like you said, you never know where that one introduction can take you. For example, I introduced myself to Kenya Hunt and she's the editor-in-chief of Elle UK and you know, she's doing amazing work. She’s an incredible black woman breaking out in the industry, so I was like, “Okay, I've seen her across the room, I'm gonna go and introduce myself to her,” and that’s exactly what I did. I did a lot of that during London Fashion Week actually. If you get the opportunity, if you see that person and you are not bold enough to take the opportunity and speak to them, you're probably gonna kick yourself later.
Jessica: And someone else is gonna do it. Someone is always trying to take your spot. People ask me what the hardest thing is and I say it’s maintaining the brand. I can build a brand again tomorrow but maintaining it is the difficult part.
Phadria: Absolutely. I agree with that. So what is that thing that makes you keep going despite all the downfalls and coming close to probably even wanting to quit at times?
Jessica: That’s a good question. It’s been a very, very emotional month for me, cause you know, I went to New York for Fashion Week and I used to live there. So I had to leave New York and come to LA because I was on this reality show and I wanted to chase being a reality star.
And I looked up, and I was like “wow, I prayed for this moment.” I prayed to be something. My whole goal in life was to be famous cause my great aunt is Patty LaBelle and growing up around her, I just loved the adrenaline of that and I was always trying to figure out what I could do. So now I look back, I'm like gosh, was it all worth it? Cause I've missed so much time with my family. I've missed out on so many key moments in my life. So I ask myself was it really worth the money? Was it really worth what I have now? This is where I’m struggling now.
So going back to New York, it was like, OK, I'm closer to my family there. I really want to move to the East coast again and also for my brand direction and where I'm trying to take it. I want to be around for 100 years.
Phadria: I love that you’re already thinking about the next 100 years! And I also read that you call yourself resourceful, (laughs). I want to talk about how important that is as an entrepreneur because you come up against so many different obstacles and things don't always go to plan, so you've gotta be able to pivot. You've got to be able to roll with the punches. You've got to be able to make lemonade out of the seed in the lemons, (Jessica laughs). So talk to me about that.
Jessica: I wear so many hats and people are like, “do you have staff?” I'm like, “yeah, I have so much staff,” but if today everyone quit, I'd be able to handle everything, which is kinda crazy.”
Phadria: Yes, yes!
Jessica: Maybe not everything because I have my COO Maggie, who handles my retail and she does it so well, so maybe not that part of it, but as far as shipments, I still love shipping. I don't ship anymore, but I miss those days. You have to really know your company inside out.
Phadria: I agree and that's something that my mentor tells me a lot. You have to know every single part of the business and I've made it my job to do just that. So I'm right there as well — knowing every side of the business. I think that's the key. And you are, of course, the first black shoe designer to have a deal with Nordstrom. That’s quite an achievement. What was that like brokering that deal and getting your collection in there?
Jessica: It’s crazy. So, I went for a walk one day and I was sitting in Nordstrom and [at the time] I had two shoes, that’s all I ever did — two shoes. I was trying to figure out who the shoe buyer was and I did eventually through millions of calls and stalking everyone in the world, (laughs). I then found this lady and I emailed her my line sheet and she was like, “Hey, I love your brand, but you have two styles.” And I'm like, “yeah.” So she said “call me when you have like 10.” (Laughs), so my whole mission that entire year was to put out a shoe every month just to make sure by the end of the year I had 10 styles and that was my only determination in life.
So every month I put out a shoe, but then at the end of the year, she didn’t email me back.
Fast forward five years and last winter, my staff Nikki came to me and said “Jessica, you're not gonna believe who called me.” And I'm like “who,” and she's like, “Nordstrom just called here.” They wanted to have my shoes in the store. I called the buyer right back but she didn’t remember talking to me and I didn't mention it either. She's like, “yeah, we've been trying to get a hold of you for like six months.” They wanted to have me in five stores and also online, and it’s been great. We sold out in those five stores and we’ve expanded into 20 stores. We're in Bloomingdales as well. It’s pretty insane.
Phadria: That’s very inspiring. Another thing that I really loved when I was doing my research was how transparent you were when you were talking about starting up the brand and getting funding. You spoke about the fact that your credit wasn't actually good enough to get a really massive loan to start your brand and that you actually started the brand with 1,500 dollars in seed funding. Tell me how you made that happen with 1.5K.
Jessica: (Laughs) OK, so this is what I did. Shopify.com was 30 dollars a month. I started the store with that. Then I had a designer that I knew and he's like, “Jess, I can design your website. I'll do it for a thousand dollars.” I said, “OK, can you do a payment plan?” So we made a payment plan. Then I went to the Alley and that's where I got the wholesale clothing. Things were like $8, $9 right? So then I had all the inventory and I did all the uploading myself. So there you go. You have the website covered, you have the product covered, and you have me, the publicist, the customer service and the shipping. I’m everyone, (laughs). I ran my business out of my apartment and I'd shoot my product on my girlfriends for free at the pool. I’d use those photos for the website and Instagram and here we are.
Phadria: I love that. And tell me about your role at the Black Designers Fund, because I know you're very big on giving back and helping others in the industry because you found it so difficult yourself trying to get in. So tell me about that.
Jessica: Yes, so we dedicated $50,000 last year to black designers. We give money to people who have actually been trying and doing their due diligence, versus not doing anything. It was very important to give back. I'm such a giver in general. I'd give the shirt off my back if I could. So moving forward, we are going to do that every year.
In December 2022, Jessica Rich and international artist Cassie teamed up for a new collection featuring the singer’s holiday favorites. Inclusive of eye-catching diamanté embellishments and luxurious satin on Jesica’s signature wrap up stiletto silhouettes, along with over the knee and ankle boots with with sleek snakeskin or glossy patent with a custom modeled heel, each design adds the the perfect amount of sparkle, sexy and glam to spice up any holiday look!
