Jessie Wong, the wonderwoman behind first-class handbag brand Yu Mei, sits down with Cityscape to chat about the team behind the label, design revelations and the success of such an iconic fashion name.
Why bags? I couldn’t find a bag that met all my needs, so designing my own provided the solution. Not a lot of bag designers consider how the modern woman lives, juggling work, family and a social life. We’ve come a long way since the early purses, which were designed to carry a woman’s love letters. We also love how bags can express what we want and design them according to each individual’s needs and to suit the personalities of our friends and family (which each one is named after). We're so enchanted by bags we'd never want to go back to fashion.
What’s been a recent career highlight for you? We won the Deloitte Rising Star Award, which has a lot of kudos as it looks at the business as a whole, and in September we went to the Nurture Change business retreat in Hawaii, which always has an inspiring lineup of speakers. This year the most memorable takeaway for me came from Murray Thom – “Enjoy your life, have a good attitude, and maintain balance.”
What keeps you grounded amidst the chaos of running your own business? I’m definitely all about working smarter, not harder, so there’s lots of planning and delegation involved. We accept we can’t do everything so we’ve learnt to lean on people and trust our incredible team. We give a lot of ownership to whomever we collaborate with, which they really respect. And when things get really crazy, my family and boyfriend are amazing; whether it’s bringing in food to keep our 16-strong team fuelled up or threading swing tags, they help out wherever they can.
What’s been your greatest design faux pas? Back in the early days we spent $100k on straps and only realised they’d been made too thick when the hardware wouldn’t fit. Even though we had given the maker our specifications, it taught us the importance of clear communication – especially when collaborating with others – to realise our vision.
And your biggest design revelation? Given that our team largely comes from a fashion background, we were lucky enough to have a fantastic girl with us from Paris who had specific experience within the leathergoods industry. She had worked for the likes of Hermès and Louis Vuitton, and brought with her a wealth of experience that opened us up to new ways of working that streamlined our processes and significantly improved our bags.
What music gets your creative juices flowing? We have a very eclectic playlist in the workroom. Depending on the mood we love Shamir, Solange, Kendrick Lamar and Thundercat.
What mantra do you live by? Simplicity is complexity resolved.
What’s your fave investment piece (besides your Yu Mei bag collection of course)? A good blazer – either this one I’m wearing today, designed by my good friend Wynn Hamlyn, or my Dries van Noten one.
What would you never be seen dead in? Striped tees.