Twenty-three year-old Arkansan fashion designer and owner of international clothing company Judith & James, Anna Taylor, will showcase her fall collection this Sunday (Feb. 9) at 4 p.m. in the Helen Mills Center in Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week.
The event will conclude with the introduction of James127 Foundation, the Judith & James sister nonprofit dedicated to training impoverished women as seamstresses.
Fall collection pieces will feature Maassi fabric, an African plaid material, and contrasting colors. Taylor has expanded the line to include shoes and leather accessories. We can’t wait to see it!
Judith & James first appeared in the fall 2013 Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week where she designed 15 looks for the show. Arkansas boutiques Tulips and Beyond Cotton is lined up to sell Judith & James apparel and “Top Chef” host Padme Lakshma wore Judith & James in a recent show. She was also featured on KATV news Channel 7, where one of the anchors traveled to Kenya and presented Taylor’s work in two special reports “The Spirit of Arkansas in Africa”– Bringing Hope to Widows and The Gift that Saves Lives.
James127 Foundation is the product of Taylor’s ambition to continue empowering women to escape poverty. Fourteen women graduated in July 2013 from Taylor’s sewing training program, and new trainees will begin the program in February. Taylor plans to expand her company model and nonprofit focus to other developing countries in the future.
Judith & James is a high fashion clothing company with an international focus. CEO and Founder, Anna Taylor, formed the company after living in Kenya and experiencing the rampant poverty in the Nairobi slums first-hand. She envisioned vocational training and employment as a sustainable solution to the poverty problem in developing countries. Judith & James is based in Kenya and employs local seamstresses to manufacture Taylor’s designs. Judith & James compensates all employees with fair wages and uses locally sourced fabrics for each piece produced.
She was featured as a style icon in the November issue of Little Rock Soiree. Check it out here!