Chinese designer embraces dream in London

Jam Love's handbags for new season.[Photo by Zhang Chunyan/China Daily

More Chinese designers are pursuing their design dreams in global fashion city London.

Ma Jia, founder of fashion brand Jam Love, is one of them. Having worked in fashion industries and worker for popular brands for more than 10 years, Ma launched her own brand Jam Love in London in 2014.

"The brand logo is an 1880 typographic font found during the initial project," she said.

Inspired by the classic design of vintage motorcars and luxury watches, she combines good-quality materials, including vegetable-tanned leather and heritage waxed canvas from Italy with British craftsmanship for the handbags and leather accessories.

Its iconic fine leather goods have been created to add an attractive, timeless and elegant accord to a stylish individual at work or leisure.

Ma was born in Hangzhou, capital of China's Zhejiang province and has lived and worked in Beijing, London, New York and Tokyo during the past years.

She completed her foundation at Central St Martins and gained a bachelor of Arts degree in product design & development for the fashion industries from the London College of Fashion in 2002.

In order to set up the brand, Ma got over lots of difficulties. For example, she went around in the UK to looking for the suitable leather, canvas suppliers by herself.

"I have strong determination to make my dream reality. It is lucky that I have gained a lot of help and support from my friends."

She stressed, "All my handbags are designed with simplistic design and the good material, craftsmanship to satisfy the office ladies in the cities."

In recent years, British universities have experienced a rise in the numbers of Chinese students coming to study fashion and design, with many going on to work for some of the famous fashion houses or setting up their own brand labels.

Data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2014 shows that over the last five years London universities have experienced an astonishing rise of over 150 percent in Chinese students coming to the city to study creative arts and design.

Ma, who also had studied in London, said, "While my brand is just started, I hope I could develop it well and hope more Chinese students could become professional product designers."