Check out my feature in Texas Monthly Magazine:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/style/video-jenny-n-design/

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I’ve always loved making things. When I was six, my grandmother visited us from Vietnam. She didn’t understand English and I couldn’t speak Vietnamese, so her visit turned out to be an extended game of charades. I would say we were pretty successful because she ended up teaching me how to knit. I made a small magenta rectangle that I folded in half and made into a pouch. Wanting to strengthen the design, I asked my mom for help. My mom took out a vintage Singer sewing machine, some scrap fabric, and taught me to sew a simple bag lining and a strap to turn my pouch into a bag.

It didn’t surprise anyone that I started Jenny N. while studying Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin as an outlet for the pent up creativity. In April 2008, I used all of the money I had saved up to buy a Singer sewing machine, some fabric, and a camera. Soon, I was building handbag prototypes and posting them online to sell. What started as an exciting distraction from my studies soon became a business. Jenny N. was then, and still is my labor of love.

15 years in, I take great pride in operating my entire business out of a small office in our home, where I still make every bag meticulously from start to finish and give it a goodbye hug before shipping it to its loving owner. Jenny N. might not fit the prevailing narrative of our mass-produced world, but that’s several thousand bag-hugs ya’ll!

I’m a one-woman operation, where I design, sew, “manufacture”, package, and ship my handmade bags. I also photograph/model most of my products, answer all emails and inquiries, and everything else associated with running a business. Talk about “small business”!