The budding handbag designer whose ‘hidden talent‘ was first shaped during her upbringing in the Dominican Republic
If you were told that a young girl’s passion for fashion was first ignited in her living room, you might well imagine her flicking through the pages of a glossy magazine or watching a glitzy awards ceremony on the television.
This wasn’t the case for Ana Joli.
When she opened her living room door, she found her dad’s tailoring shop. She didn’t know then – nor did she know for some time – that the room’s distinctive smell of fabric wasn’t just something that she’d carry with her for years to come but would also be the grounding for her own foray into the fashion industry.
While it’s still relatively early doors, there’s no denying that Ana has made a splash with this business endeavour. She’s got both an online and international presence – with her handmade handbags being her signature item. Ana can also boast that her products are green-friendly, given that they tend to be made from materials that are generally locally sourced or repurposed.
“The inspiration comes a little bit from reusing and recycling things that could go to waste’, explains Ana. She adds: “Creating something different, letting the imagination flow without following any structure and not being constricted – that’s how it must be!”
Handbags have unsurprisingly been trendy. However, this venture is far more than just cashing in on a hobby. It’s about so much more than just making a name for herself or paying the bills. Instead, it’s about the ‘peacefulness’ that it brings her.
“The idea that you thought of something and you were able to make it a reality. I think that’s very fulfilling,” Ana explains. “That’s how I feel. It’s the freedom of not following a path written by somebody else.”
Ana is now based in Essex, but her items have garnered much interest in the United States. In particular, they’ve been prevalent in Miami, Florida –where Ana once lived and most of her family still call home. So while initially, she was just making items for family and friends, the first actual seal of approval came when she took her products to a fashion show in Miami.
She was the only designer to sell something in what she refers to as a stroke of ‘beginner’s luck’. Ana reflects: “I almost wanted to pay the lady for buying it!”
Of course, this wasn’t a one-off. In fact, a second stamp of approval would come when a friend’s sister bought a batch of handbags for her shop in Palm Beach.
While thousands of miles away from her current home, Ana never misses the opportunity to tell her international customers where the items are made. She reveals: “When I sell this in Florida, I’m very proud to say, ‘That’s from Leigh-on-Sea’!”
This, however, isn’t a story about Miami or Essex. Instead, Ana’s story started in the Dominican Republic. She hasn’t lived there in decades, but – all these years later – it’s clear that it’s the place that most shaped the confident woman we see today.
Ana calls it ‘the most beautiful island in the Caribbean’. When asked about her youth, though, it’s not sun-kissed beaches and sky-high palm trees that she talks about, but rather ‘culture, music and language’.
She adds: “It’s a lot about gatherings and families, seeing our cousins every other weekend, and things like that.”
It feels almost idyllic, especially when Ana highlights that the shared culture rather than being black defined her experience of growing up in the Dominican Republic.
“I think the connection through the language, the food, the way we are – there are so many different characteristics that go beyond the skin colour,” she explains. “I would say I was lucky enough to grow up in an environment like that.”
Things, however, weren’t quite as simple for her father. His origins were from Haiti, and because of this, Ana can now see in hindsight that it must have been a challenge for him to ‘maintain his own identity’ given the divisions between the two countries, recognising that it must have been hard for him to raise a second generation family ‘with a different language and different custom and culture’.
Ana is quick to praise her dad in many ways. She refers to him as a ‘visionary’ because he instilled a sense of ambition in each of his four daughters, with Ana being the third of his brood.
“He’s a fantastic man,” Ana says proudly. “He makes you feel like the world was made for you.”
Alongside her mum – a house-proud homemaker turned beautician – Ana’s dad sent her and her three siblings a clear message that she still holds dear.
She reveals: “I think I give them a lot of merits because it could not be easy to do that, to be proud of who you are and where you come from.”
Of course, this wasn’t the only thing ingrained in Ana. She didn’t know it then, but her hard-working dad and his tailoring shop would form the basis for her flair for fashion. You only have to hear how she describes her father’s workshop to see that it’s similar to the circumstances she finds herself in now.
Speaking about his living room-based workplace, Ana reflects: ‘The smell of the fabric, the little pieces of the fabric that flow when you’re cutting, my dad being in cherish of cutting everything – I associate those memories with happiness.”
Between these days in the Dominican Republic and her present life in Leigh-on-Sea, Ana and her family moved to Miami. She was studying Psychology at the time (and would ultimately secure a degree in the field) before landing a job in banking. It seems this became an unlikely path for her when she impressively passed the Investment Licence exam on her first attempt and landed a job at Merrill Lynch.
Much like she’s doing now in the fashion world, Ana quickly proved herself to be a capable individual, and it didn’t take her long to start rising through the ranks of what is typically a male-dominated industry. She says the experience has been pivotal in helping her to ‘manage stress’ – pointing out that she worked in the sector during the volatility of the financial crisis in 2008.
At the same time, she was raising her son. She recalls: “We lived a regular life. I worked and was a single mum, so I cared for him and things like that.”
Ana admits she wanted to blend her ‘Latin culture’ while raising her son in the ‘American lifestyle’. However, the pair’s world as they knew it was tipped upside down when Ana was offered the chance to take up a new role in Chile.
For Ana, it presented an opportunity in the face of a cultural upheaval for her and her son. But, unfortunately, it also came with the threat of something she largely managed to avoid during her youth: racism. In one instance, her manager even spelt out the hazard awaiting her if she relocated.
She recalls him saying, ‘The only thing is that there are not that many black people in Chile’ as she deliberated whether or not to take up the position.
In the end, Ana seized the opportunity, and instead of seeing a race divide, she actually bore witness to a harsh class divide. At one point, she even had to remind her son not to lose sight of who he was as he rubbed shoulders with the wealthy while studying at a private school.
“Son, enjoy the lifestyle, but keep your head straight on who you are as a person,” Ana reflects upon saying to him at one point.
To this day, Ana admits to having ‘mother’s guilt’ over the situation. In addition, she confesses that she knew that Chile – which would be the first stop on what would be the start of her jet-set lifestyle – could never be her ‘forever’ home.
She says: “I love the country, I love the people. It’s not everybody. But [the class divide] was one of the reasons why I said this couldn’t be my forever place.”
Luckily, the opportunity would once again, and Ana was offered the chance to take up a new position in Geneva, Switzerland. So, naturally, she accepted – but fate would have other intentions.
While awaiting her start date, her company asked if she wouldn’t mind a three-month stint in London, England. Little did she know then that she’d actually be spending much longer in the United Kingdom.
In fact, it’s now been more than 10 years, and she’s still there. Indeed, it’s now her home.
There will be those who are so excited about moving from one country to another. And for Ana – who’s also worked in Singapore and Uruguay – it must have been thrilling to experience places so far away from her birthplace in the Dominican Republic.
It hasn’t, however, been without its obstacles. As well as dealing with ‘mother’s guilt’ and adjusting to new cultures, the banking world has also presented challenges – including people and individuals who have brought her to tears.
The good has fortunately outweighed the bad for Ana. You only have to look at how she’s thrived in the sector. It’s something to brag about, but this isn’t Ana’s style. Instead, she’s modest in how she talks about herself and her success.
She reveals: “The bank hasn’t shown me how to be humble. I came to the bank humble. I came to the bank with discipline. Nothing will go to my head because my core is clean.”
The banking world is often seen as ruthless, almost cutthroat. This, however, couldn’t be further from how Ana comes across. She seems driven by the most wholesome of goals: making her family proud, being a role model for her son and shaping the world around her.
The latter is apparent when she explains how she’s been known to hire people for her team who have no experience in private banking simply because she can see their potential. Rather admirably, she enjoys allowing people to prove themselves in the same manner she has throughout her career.
Ana details: “Being a team leader and having to choose talent also helped me see potential rather than just hiring people because it’s a finished product.”
Ana now works as a vice president on anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-facilitation of tax evasion for an American bank. She’s been in the role since 2015, including the period of the coronavirus outbreak. As with most of the world, she was forced into lockdown, and her future became uncertain in 2020.
Like many, Ana’s routine is thrown into disarray, and she admits she spent too much time just ‘working at my desk’. She needed something to fill her time. But what?
She details: “I wanted to find something challenging and entertaining to do out of the ordinary, and I started upholstering furniture and doing different things, most of them a bit of a failure.”
It wasn’t long until Ana stumbled upon a ‘hidden talent’. After googling how to make a handbag, she tried to see if she could accomplish the feat –only to fall head over heels for the creative process.
She recalls: “I loved it! I loved how relaxing it was. I loved that I don’t know where the creativity came from!”
It soon became apparent that this wasn’t a hobby she would drop when the country re-opened. On the contrary, it enlightened something in her, quickly becoming her passion. This passion has led to the endearing handbags she’s now becoming known for in the fashion world.
“I made another one, and another one, and kept wanting to expand the creativity,” says Ana.
In typical Ana fashion, the venture has become a vehicle for her to celebrate her worldview with others. This includes using locally sourced materials to promote that there is ‘power in the community’.
During one photo shoot, she hired a local photographer and insisted that the models that were carrying the handbags were an actual reflection of the world around her.
“I wanted all the girls to be from different backgrounds, different body shapes,” she explains. “I don’t want skinny unless it’s your natural frame. Because that’s not a reality.”
The photoshoot became just as much about promoting local businesses as it did about her handbags, with Ana even making sure the local fishmonger even got a shout-out. Through this, she believes she’s playing her part in ‘helping the town succeed’.
Again, this is something that runs deep in Ana, and it’s something that can be traced back to her upbringing in the Dominican Republic. This idea of civism ran alongside her youth – whether at school or in her home life with her parents.
Ana ponders: “Even though I didn’t see that then, moving forward to many different countries that I lived, those values translated into all those moves, that respect and civism, wherever you go.”
The big question from here is this: what’s next for Ana? Of course, it’s only natural that she’d have her eye on expanding the business, especially now that it’s got a growing market in Miami. However, Ana does allow her mind to wander about the prospect of basing elements of the venture in Santo Domingo. This would make it easier and cheaper for her to sell her handbags in the United States.
She’s cautious about possibly growing the line because it’s not centred on making money or reaching new customers. Instead, the primary beneficiary is still Ana.
“If you turn the product into a business, you will lose your relaxation project,” she points out.
There’s every reason to believe that Ana will make the right decision about her future and handbags – whatever that might be. After all, history has shown that she’s never one to miss an opportunity when it comes knocking. In fact, this would be the main piece of advice that she would offer to others.
“Don’t wait for a mentor to come to you,’ she says. “Finding the bravery and the courage to go outside your comfort zone will make a difference in your life. So be a seeker.”
This is yet another reminder that if you like to take inspiration from strong women or simply like to purchase handbags from talented designers, you should be keeping an eye on Ana Joli.