Jennifer Thomas, owner of Jet on Mississippi Avenue, is an inspiring designer, mother and entrepreness. I recently had the privilege of speaking with Jennifer in her store and before long the conversation flowed as if we were long-time friends. I got the impression that this is how she interacts with all of the people who enter her store. Jennifer embodies the spirit of the Northwest from her warm smile, laid-back attitude, and sustainability-minded business focus. In our interview, Jennifer describes circumstances that may sound familiar to many other entreprenesses – tough beginnings, perseverance, and running a business with passion and purpose.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I’m was born in Gresham and raised in Hood River, Oregon. I grew up on 60 acres bordering US Forest Service Land that is now a winery called Phelps Creek Vineyards. We had quite the country life; complete with deer outside and lots of good stuff growing in the garden. It was a very beautiful place to grow up. I graduated from high school and moved back and forth between Portland, New York and Hood River, and gathered a lot of all-around life experience up and down the East and West Coast.

What prompted you to become a designer and open Jet?
I had my daughter Emily in 2001 and I got married shortly after that. For my wedding I wanted a dress that I couldn’t afford, so I bought a different one and cut it up! It totally freaked my mom out and I had no idea what I was doing. I went, “Well, that sucked. I did a horrible job,” but it really got me going with apparel design.

I had been doing interior design before and I got to a point where I had to make a decision about which direction I wanted to go in. Emily was getting a little bit older and I wanted something to do outside of the house scenario. So I went post baccalaureate to [the Art Institute]. I had a really great conversation with a woman at AI about the difference between apparel and interior design. She told me “the only difference is you are dealing with personal space or the space around you.” This was a great seed that she planted in my head. So I decided to try apparel design and from day one I realized how much I loved it.

I continued at AI for a year part-time but decided that I didn’t really need a degree to do design – its not like I’m becoming a doctor! I found some mentors – Dragon Lily and Jasmine Patten from Derbish, and Kerry Roberts. These fantastic women really transformed my life on so many levels and I began to sell one-off skirts and that sort of thing, I was just really trying to figure out what the heck I was doing with my life and how it was going to work and wondering “Could I really even do this?” I had this thing in my mind where I hated the whole starving artist idea. I hated buying into it because I think that art really does save peoples lives and it really can create jobs for people. I knew I really wanted to move in that direction, but I didn’t know how to make it happen for a long time. Years go by and I’m still piddling around with skirts and so-forth and finally I’m like “Alright, I’m going to create a line.” I am in Hood River and I have a studio and I have all this fabric and I start just playing and I came up with 10 pieces that I sewed – not very well mind you [laughing]. I walked out with those ten pieces and took them to a bunch of different stores and I ended up with 11 accounts right out of the door.

Then right when everything was going to deliver we had the horrible snowstorm of a couple years ago and the economy and everything else just fell out of the bottom. I began to think maybe I couldn’t do design anymore. It was that classic thing like “Okay, its time to give it all up.” But instead I came back in a huge way! I took on a business partner whose name is Kristin Casperson; she’s basically the brains behind the operation! She has a degree in merchandising and a lot of schooling in business so she was able to apply all of that so I could actually do my design work. So we knew we were partnering up but we were still deciding if we wanted to do a website, or wholesale or a store. At that time I knew I had to get out of Hood River. I had grown up there and couldn’t stand another minute and wanted to get back to Portland. Luckily Kristin was understanding, which was cool.

So the next step we took was about sustainable fabrics and about being a sustainable business and deciding that sustainability was a really big deal to us. So we decided that opening a store would be the best scenario for educating the public – not that Portlanders need a lot of education about that, compared to other parts of the world – but we’re still doing a lot of education about how that works. So because of these values, everything we do is produced locally, creating jobs for local families – and I know these families, they are awesome! My producer is a huge part of what we do; she makes our patterns at this point. My artistic practice has improved. I can spend a lot more time with the development and just give her the information and she can produce it for me.

Where did your inspiration for the sustainable focus come from?
It is a passion-based scenario. Growing up in Oregon we have that inclination naturally. For me, it has a lot to do with the physical feeling of the fibers. I’ve always detested polyester! I’ve been more drawn to silks and cotton, both natural fibers. I like things that are comfortable to move in. It is a lot about the actual feeling of being in the clothing.

It sounds like the passion for sustainability comes from deep within your heart, but do you feel like it has also affected the bottom-line of your business positively?
Absolutely, sustainability is a huge movement that is growing and will continue to grow and the more people that do it the better. Right now there is a lot of information out there and sustainability is kind of a “red-flag” word, in a good way. But there is still a lot of education to do about what sustainability actually means. For instance I did a lot of work with the USDA and through that learned that when the USDA took over the certification for sustainable vegetables there was this huge gray area where they allowed antibiotics and other things.

At Jet we use a bamboo blend in a lot of our fabrics. A lot of places claim to use bamboo but it is actually made from a blend of rayon and other synthetics. So when you walk into a Target and everything is produced in China, you know that they are using different so-called “bamboo” than we are.

By no means am I saying that every fiber is perfect; our carbon footprint is affected by the fact that it comes from San Francisco and has to be preshrunk. It’s not perfect, but that’s where it comes down to educating every person who comes in the door. And then the other side of sustainability that I am passionate about is the local production. When you put those things together you get a pretty awesome product!

What else sets your products apart from those found elsewhere?
The Jet label is all womenswear consisting of skirts, dresses, pants tops, and more. The process I use to create these items is largely what sets the pieces apart from others. I design everything on myself – I am a size 8, a medium, pretty much the average woman. I feel like that affects the pieces in a huge way because I’m not sitting there with a form guessing how it will actually look. A lot of the pieces we have don’t have a lot of hanger appeal, but they are clothes that you put on and go “oh my god, I feel great!” I focus on necklines, how feminine it is, and how wearable. My life is extremely active like most. I am constantly biking to yoga, picking up my daughter from school, going to a dance lesson, coming back to work…I have to look good through all the parts of the day and I have to be able to move at the same time. I like to be 100% confident in what I am wearing and be comfortable too. And I love layers; we are all about layers!

It sounds like your garments are perfect for busy people on the go who want to be comfortable and look great. Anything else you would add to that?
We have pieces for people aged 20 to 60! The extra small is something that my daughter Emily can wear and my mother who is 60 looks fabulous in other pieces.

What are some of the challenges that you face owning your own business? How do you overcome these?
Too many irons in the fire and too much to do! We have taken on a marketing person and have an assistant coming in the fall as well as employees working in the store. We knew these jobs were here but now they are becoming big enough to actually put people in them. The biggest challenge with everything though is communicating. I’m not only a designer trying to communicate what is in my heart and artistic soul, but also that “Hey, you can wear this” and “Hey, this is how you sell it.” It is about figuring out how you say something to someone and be nice but still get things done.

How do you overcome these challenges and communication hurdles?
I take a look at my leadership skills. Accountability is a massive scenario that is missing in so much of corporate and government world. If I’m asking my employee to do something, I better make sure that I can do it too and that I know exactly what it means and that I am there to back them up. It’s really about just being cool! Its like can I look at you in the face and smile? It is about continuing to have positive relationships and that comes across in everything we do.

How is the progress coming with your website and other marketing initiatives?
We should have our website up in the next month to two. It will be jetdress.net and people will be able to buy online. This is great because I have found if you buy a medium in a Jet skirt, you can pick any other skirt and be a medium in Jet. That’s one of the great things about local production too – we are right here right on top of it the whole time.

At Jet, we market donating to auctions and charities that benefit schools and other organizations. I believe if you can get the products in front of people who care and are interested in being sustainable that is very powerful.

Is the Jet Label carried anywhere else?
We wanted to keep it contained while we get all of our hiccups worked out but it is part of our plan to grow. Right now Jet is carried at Parts and Labor in Hood River, Oregon. It’s also carried at Radish Underground in downtown Portland.

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Yes, we will be having an anniversary party in the beginning of October with a fashion show, fire dancers, a DJ, and other fun stuff! Would love to see everyone there to celebrate.