When Anna Taylor traveled to Africa for the first time years ago, the vibrant culture really stood out to the now 22-year-old Little Rock fashion designer and recent graduate of the University of Arkansas. Here’s something else that struck a chord: when she saw the devastating poverty of the local women who, despite their circumstances, managed to provide for their families.
By combining her eye for design and willingness to help combat the cycle of poverty in her family’s second home of Africa, Taylor was able to create the fashion line Judith & James that has transcended the scope of fashion today.
“Led by love. Pursued by joy. Inspired by hope,” is a phrase that Taylor takes pretty seriously — it’s the very philosophy on which she based her fashion line.
Every bold-patterned dress, well-crafted tunic and perfectly tailored pair of slacks Taylor designs is created with African-sourced fabrics by local seamstresses in Nairobi, Kenya — a way to provide opportunities for women living in the slums.
“For them, [it’s about] feeling empowered, as opposed to giving them a handout that won’t last long,” Taylor says.
The company’s namesake and the first Kenyan Judith & James employee, Judith, supervises a sewing training program in the town with 16 local seamstresses.
“We hired a professional Kenyan tailor to teach these women for a year-and-a-half and we told them at the end of the [program], you will take a certified national exam,” she says.
The ultimate goal: to employ them after they finish training. “When you give a woman a job, she can pay for her child’s school fees. Her child gets an education and then gets a job, so it really cuts off the cycle of poverty,” she explains.
Taylor has always had an eye for design, but not always fashion. In fact, she was first an art major at the UofA before switching to apparel studies.
Her love of fashion design really took off when she went on her first trip to Rwanda at just 19 years old. It was then that she saw the women in Hope Village who provided for themselves and helped one another survive one day at a time.
“I saw all of these younger women and I just felt like I needed to help,” Taylor says.
She started creating wire crosses and sold them to students on campus, sending the money back to Rwanda.
“That’s when I first realized I could use my creativity to really help people,” she says.
Shortly thereafter, she switched her major and started working with African fabrics in her sewing class. During Christmas break 2010, she traveled back to Kenya, where her family was living at the time.
That’s when things just clicked.
“I was a sorority girl as a sophomore and I realized I have a market right here,” Taylor says. “I felt like I was in the perfect place to sell the things these women could make and I would design with our market in mind.”
The next year, she began working with two widows — Judith and Jane — making products that she sold to friends in Nairobi, expanding the line of ornate African patterns, bold colors and clean lines, in September 2011.
Now, her line has crossed international borders, and the group of trainees has graduated from the first sewing program.
It looks like word of her line is spreading, too. Padma Lakshmi of the hit Bravo TV reality show “Top Chef” will wear one of her designs in an upcoming show this season, and Taylor is hot off a successful spring 2014 collection preview at the 2013 Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week.
“Everything fell into place exactly how it needed, which was shocking,” she says. “Things just kept working out.”
Locally, the styles can be found at boutiques Tulips and Beyond Cotton, with several more possible carriers in the works.
So, what’s next?
Taylor already has 16 women in her latest Kenyan sewing training program and she is looking to start a new program in Kijabe, Kenya, this fall. Also during her visit to Kenya this season, she will be designing and helping produce her fall 2014 line.
As the fashion line continues to thrive, so will women across the world. After all, Judith & James isn’t just named for head seamstress Judith — the “James” in the line refers to The Bible’s James 1:27, which urges to care for widows and orphans in their distress.
“I want these women to have the strength and dignity to make themselves feel valuable, to tap into their emotions and really encourage them as women,” Taylor says, “and let them know ‘you can do this, you can feed your family, you can do this by yourself and you don’t need to rely on anyone else to give you a handout.’”
Anna Taylor recently debuted Judith & James at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. “Project Runway” alum Korto Momolu recommended Taylor and vouched for her beautiful African designs, which help women in Kenya support their families.
An example of Anna Taylor’s handiwork.