Ep. 160 - Guest: Jennifer Lully, founder and CEO of Broken Mirror Designs

This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is Fasci's Pass. Hello everyone, and welcome into another episode of Backstage Pass. It's Victoria here and I have a wonderful, so very talented guest with me today. It is miss Chin from Broken Mirror Designs. Jenna. How are you today? Oh? I'm doing very well. How are you, Victoria? I am doing just great. It's so wonderful to finally do this interview with you. I know it's been a long time coming. So a fun fact about Jennifer. We met at New York Fashion Week, I think a couple of years ago, and Jennifer came to participate in a show that I produced. She won the Top Designer award. So, Jennifer, taking it back to that moment when you were announced as the winner, you know, against some pretty stiff competition, What was going through your head? Yeah, thank you, Victoria. Thank you for having me on too. I really appreciate it. Oh my gosh, I was so excited. I was really surprised too that it was me. You know, there there are a lot of really good designers that come to your shows, and so I was just excited to keep working with you too. I really do and you're coming up. It's yeah, it's wonderful to work with you and everybody in that feet. So your collection is a stunning collection. And you know, I have an appreciation for all kinds of art on the runway, but some fashion that you see in runway shows, it's not exactly easily transitional to everyday life. And what I love about Broken Mirror is it's ready to wear. You could wear it to cocktail hour, you could wear it for a night on the town. And it's very interesting patterns. And so I just have to ask what your inspiration behind like each individual piece that you make, because each piece has a name, is that right? Yes, yeah, thank you for asking that. Hpiece does have a name. And you know the collection. So this collection, the one that we did in New York for a runway subtle and called arose from Concrete and you know, on an eco ego fashion, eco friendly designer, right, But the collection overall that you know, it was really I wanted it to be very adventurous, very fun, very different than what's out there with a lot of other environmentally friendly fashion. And the first source of the concept was really came from like I love to write, I love to read this collection of two pop plums, and they're about this rose that blooms from in between cracks and the concrete. So imagine like you're walking down the sidewalk in a big city like New York and concretes everywhere, and then out of nowhere you stop and you find this beautiful wild rose that's growing in between the crocs, like from crazy odds and really harsh climates, it still booms. And so I kept picturing this image of rose blooming like breaking through the concrete, and it reminded me of a mirror breaking. It's this message of like unstoppable beauty and resilience. And then the other part, like for me, yeah, the other part was so when I when I first designed in Victoria, like I lived in. Two thousand, this was twenty. Twenty three, twenty four, and I lived near Portland. So Portland, Oregon is the city of roses, right, and they have all these beautiful rose gardens all over and they're just gorgeous, like I would go all the time. And in Portland it rains pretty much every day. You wrote, it's really gloomy. It's kind of depressing, but it's also why it's so beautiful and green there, right, and then all that constant rain and the storms. They inspired me to picture this our owns that like comes up for multiple storms and I want yeah, and I wanted it to be an environmental statement, right because the storms just keep getting orders due to climate change and a lot of people don't know the concrete is actually like one of the top owners. So yeah, that's where a lot of the concept came from. Wow, Okay, and you see, you learn something new every day. As long as I've known you and we've been working together, I did not know where the name Broken Mirror came from. So how interesting. That's I love that concept. Yeah, yeah, thank you, Victoria. Yeah, I mean there are a lot, like a lot of different things. That we think of of our name. And so we're a family owned business. So like the first first thing the clues to mine were really inspired by music and that song like Broken by Jack Johnson and The Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. Yeah, it was like earthy, inspirational, and then Nervana with you, Like we grew up listening to Nirvana, so we had to take a Rana all yeah, and and so like Broken, ner Game and like I'm not. We really liked it because when you. Think of breaking mirrors in glass, there's a lot of different cultural means, right, right, So it's like it's like in fashion and beauty, we're always in front of the mirror, and they can definitely mean vanity, and then they can also mean like the state self reflection of course, like some people will say, hey, you know, if you break the mirror and you have seven years about buck right, But you know, like in some parts of the world it actually. Means like a there breaks in the house. It is like evil spirits are leaving the. House, right right, and like curs the bigger things. The bigger things are like nears are actually really important in tools and sustainability in earth science, so they reflect light instead of absorbing it. And glaciers, for instance, like we have that glacier dress down glaciers are we call them earth smears because they reflect light back into space instead of the ocean absorbing it to speak right, right, And glass is so much more sustainable than plastics in terms of recycling than it can be recycled indefinitely. It doesn't break down into these microplastics of course. Yeah. So but the biggest. The biggest thing is you know glass. We really like that imagery because glass is transparent, and that's really what the sustainability movement is all about. It's transparency. Exactly beautiful beautiful Wow. I love that meaning to you know, beauty from from the broken and just the whole concept behind what you create. Now your you know, your career, you have shown all over it shows in Portland and of course New York Fashion Week and my events. If you could name any what what's one pivotal moment like maybe at a fashion show or even otherwise that you were like, you know what, this is really what I'm destined to do. Did you ever have one standout moment in particular like that? Oh yeah, I mean showing her Runway seven was Oh my god, it was so fun. Yeah, So that pivotal moment like they're backstage about ready to walk and all the girls. Are so excited and they're all. In their lineup and look at the collection into yourself, Oh my god, like I created this. Yeah, that that moment is so fun. I think like the other moments the girls coming up to me in the show's victoria, it's more emotional, it's more tied to the environmental part of why I do what I do. When they come up and they want to share stories about like the different storms they've bog through, I mean, like the store garments, those moments, So those touch my heart, you know, they really do. Of course. Of course, so you know, as a designer, as a creative working in the fashion industry, sometimes it can become a little bit discouraging. You know, it's it's long hours and a lot of travel and maybe you know people, there are lulls that people aren't picking up on what you're doing as much as you'd like them to. So have you ever had or I guess to pivot that question a little bit or piggyback that what is an advice that you would give to a designer that really has a vision but is on the cusp of just giving up. What advice would you give them to keep pushing? Yeah, so I would have to say, so it's kind of like what I was saying with the roles from concrete and like beauty coming from. These crazy crafts. Yeah, Like, if you start your own business, there's going to be a lot of highs and loans, especially if you're a designer, because fashion is cyclical and change all the time, especially fashion, So for me it's you know, it's remaining grounded to key values. I also having more more stability in my life, right Like I work in finance. I've been in the financial services industry over eleven years. And I worked as an advisor for the last four and I have you know, I have a wonderful career, and so I feel like for me, broken Mirror allows me to focus on design, the art and what I'm love most. About what we do. Of course, so I feel like when you're first turning out, especially no matter what others are doing, but you have something to fall back on, see, you can just make it. About your art. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Now, Jennifer, who is is? Do you have any one designer or label that you really respect, admire, look up to in the industry? Oh? Oh, there's so many. Victoria, that's a hard one. Oh, I really I really like Stella McCartney. Oh, yes, I think she's wonderful. Yeah, she's wonderful. Like wonderful human being involved in all these philanthropic projects as well and just making the world better. And she's a fourth forerunner in sustainable fashion. I also really like Betsy Johnson. I think she's just. So fun, eclectic and creative and like really embody as that whole fashion meant to stand out, you know, this fashion is a statement, it's a platform. Yeah, so I really like that she's so different. Those are yeah, absolutely, those are definitely some standouts for me as well. So let's let's talk about the future of Broken Mirror. Well, you know, a few years, five, ten years down the line, where where do you hope to see the brand during that time frame? Yeah? So, well, right now we're getting ready for New York. We'll probably do a team more shows with this collection that we have now. I'm not also working on a new collection. So it's called let in the Light, and I just love it so far. It's in the initial stages and then the pattern making, but essentially the concept is centering around like all the different ways that we receive in the world. So mirrors, there's a couple of mirror looks, a lot of nature, science, love, God, you know, enlightenment. It's you know deep anyway, Yeah, and really I like a big center of the inspiration for me as parents, And in the next few years, I definitely want. To show at Paris maybe two or three years out. And that's always been ensuring the mind. And then in terms of the business, I just want to keep you know, I really like these collections like the one you just did, the roles from Concrete, that are different and they're eclectic and there I feel like they're one of the kinds and I want to keep creating that and meeting other people that care about the same things. It's really rewarding. That's great. So how do we connect with Broken Mirror on all the you know, socials website? How do we connect with you? Yeah, thanks for sure. And so first our website is brokennearorfashion dot com and we're also on Etsy. Available on social media, so Instagram, Broken dot Mirror dot Fashion, Facebook, same thing, or you can connect with me directly on Facebook too, and then Pinterest. I really love Pinterest. You can find us there Broken Mirror Fashion. We upload everything, all of our content, inspiration collection, pictures, all of it. So Interest is great. Yeah, but you can follow us, follow us on any of those and we'd love to hear from you. Wonderful. Well, we are definitely going to be posting up all of those links so you can connect with this brand on all the social platforms, and believe me, you want to keep up to speed with what they have going on. Jennifer, thank you so much for spending this time with us. It's always a pleasure. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you Victoria for having me. I really appreciate it. Coming to see you in September. I know New York here we come right and thank you all as always for checking into backstage pass. We'll see you next time.