Jenora Marie: “MY BRAND REPRESENTS MORE THAN JUST ME”

Are you known as a model and designer of your own brand? Was it your childhood dream or a result of circumstances? What events or people led you to this profession?
I am known as the Head Designer of my brand “Incassable Fashion”. I am also known professionally as an Model/Actress, which is a part of my Jenora Marie brand. In regards, to my childhood dream, it was always my dream to have a career within the fashion industry. However, I never considered owning my own luxury couture business until I completed my master’s degree in Luxury Fashion Management at SCAD University.
My journey with choosing fashion as my career started when I went to Barbizon Modeling and Acting school when I was in high school. My parents saw how much I took interest in the craft and decided to invest into me to ensure I was able to develop my skills into a potential career. After I completed a few modeling and acting roles, I saw how much I loved fashion and the way it lit up my heart. In those moments I knew that I wanted to be a part of the fashion industry. During the summers of my high school career, I obtained jobs at retails stores to gain experience within the industry. As I approached my senior year, I decided that I wanted to pursue my undergraduate education in Fashion Retail and Merchandising. Upon receiving a full academic scholarship to Lamar University, I decided to continue my education and commit to the university. While I was there, I was able to organize multiple fashion shows as the president of Lamar Fashion Merchandising Association and I developed a professional network with my department, which fully supported my goals and dreams as a student. As I concluded my undergraduate career, I was blessed to be featured in our Inspire. Innovate. Impact. Cardinal Magazine. I received numerous awards which included, the Most Promising Professional Award by my department chair, Jill Killough, and head professor of my department, Janice Kimmons, received the Senior of Significance Award, nominated for Lamar University Inspirational Woman Award, received Woman of the Year Award and I was a co-host for the Wardrobe Wednesday segment on the Beat for 12 News. After I completed my bachelor’s degree in Fashion Retail and Merchandising and my minor in Business Management at Lamar University, I thought I wanted to pursue a career as a Fashion Buyer. However, I was blessed to be continuously guided by the Head Professor of our Lamar Fashion Department, Janice Kimmons, to become the best version of myself as well as selecting the best career for myself. After I spent several years within the fashion retail industry and learning every position within the retail chain of command, I knew I loved the concept of retail, but I never saw my career staying within the walls of someone else’s company. However, I knew if I wanted my own retail store, I knew I wanted my merchandise to be higher end and have a sense of exclusivity. Therefore, I decided to continue my career at SCAD University in Atlanta, Georgia, mastering in Luxury and Fashion Management. I wanted to learn more about Luxury Fashion and the business behind it. While I was there learning about the past and present luxury designers, I was inspired by Coco Chanel’s story to build my brand today. Her brand is privately owned by family, it is classy, timeless, and it has exclusive pieces that adds

significant value to the brand. Coco Chanel’s story and legacy will forever be legendary in the fashion industry. At that moment I knew I wanted to tell my own story, build my own classy, elegant, timeless pieces, and have a brand that inspires others to do the same.
Please tell me about the concept of your brand. What do you aspire to communicate to the world through it?
My brand is called “Incassable Fashion”. “Incassable” means “unbreakable” in French. My brand’s name reflects my spirit and who I am. My brand presents unique, classy, bold, confident, and elegant custom pieces of art for women to be admired in. I aspire to showcase my story through my collections. 

My personality, my morals, my values, my character, and my spirit all live within my collections. On another note, I also hope to aspire other designers to create their own unique brands that emulates their stories. Our stories are what live on after we are gone, they are our legacy. I want designers to know that their story matters just as much as the next. Someone’s life can change for the better if we are brave and vulnerable enough to share our testimonies. Every day we have the choice to control the narrative of our stories… we are the narrators. The question now remains what do you want your legacy to say after you are gone? For me, I want people to see my brand and yield in admiration. My brand represents more than just me. It represents anyone whose story is similar to mine. When people wear my brand, I want them to be feel confident, look unique, stand out, feel invincible or should I say….unbreakable. My brand represents the spirits that can’t be broken and the art that speaks to you so much it leaves an imprint on you in the most positive way. The way we all admire fashion when we connect to a piece that we see. And that is what my brand represents. That is who I am. My legacy.
What results do you need to achieve in business development to say that you have accomplished everything you wanted?
In all honesty, every designer wants the opportunity to showcase their work at any of the Fashion Weeks globally. Every designer wants a celebrity client that showcases their designs at a major event or in a high fashion magazine. Every designer also wants to make their own unique mark on the fashion industry and have their brand remembered in Fashion History. Of course, my goals are the same. I would feel blessed with every opportunity that helps elevates my brand to the next level. However, as long as I am able to do what I love, provide for my family, give back to my community, and build a successful company that I can pass down within my family… I would feel that I would have accomplished my dream goal.

What are your immediate plans? What urgent tasks are you currently addressing?
My current vision for my company is to evolve. I am currently working on marketing my business locally in Houston, Texas and nationally in the United States. I am also focused on building my cliental list and building the brand’s story. My goal right now is to create exposure for my brand.
In your opinion, what is the responsibility of every person to the world we live in?
I believe we are all responsible to lead with love. Some people, such as myself, want to give back to the world by helping others. Then there are some people who want to only worry about either themselves or their families. I’m not saying either type is wrong. However, I do feel that we should lead with love when it comes to others, ourselves, or our families. Love is Patient. Love is Kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. If we can lead with love when it comes to others, people would be more understanding, compassionate, and willing to help one another grow. We would have less conflict amongst each other by resolving more issues. If we lead with love when it comes to our families, we can learn to forgive and break generational curses. Our families can reduce the conflict and communicate in a healthy way for everyone to be on one accord. Finally, if we lead with love when it comes to ourselves, we can evolve more individually. When we can learn to give ourselves grace and forgiveness for our past, take accountability for our present, then we can heal, grow, and evolve for a better future. The purest form of Love is unconditional love. I believe if everyone can learn how to lead with love unconditionally towards themselves and others, then that is the greatest contribution anyone can give to this world.