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Jessie Randall

Jessie Randall attributes her preoccupation with fashion to her grandmother—specifically, her impressive collection of diminutive shoes, which Randall ogled as a child. Now, the designer has a huge following of her own.

In early June, the 1998 U.Va. grad received the coveted Swarovski Award for Accessory Design from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), one of the highest honors in the fashion design industry. Loeffler Randall, her line of luxuriously edgy shoes and handbags, was praised by the CFDA for its ingenuity and distinctive style.

This stamp of approval from the industry marks her as one of top emerging talents in the business, but Randall remembers when the fashion business seemed very far off.

She came to U.Va. from Worcester, Mass., for the weather and a foundational liberal arts education. She majored in English, minored in studio art and credits professors such as Gregory Orr for sparking her creativity. Even then, she had inklings that fashion might be in her future. Still, Randall admits that "U.Va. was a bit of a bleak period for my personal style. I got sucked into the whole sweater-set-and-pearls thing for a while."

When she arrived in New York after graduation and began a job in advertising, she quickly realized that fashion was her calling. Encouraged by her fiancé, Brian Murphy (now her husband), Randall took fashion design courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Parsons The New School for Design. She also spent plenty of time as an unpaid intern and worked for renowned designer Katayone Adeli. She "had to pay lots and lots of dues," she recalls.

But her dedication paid off.

She launched Loeffler Randall in 2004 and has since enjoyed enormous success. Just two years later, the upstart company with its signature line of wedge-heeled boots and ballerina flats was a CFDA nominee and this year it took home the prize. Her accessories have been called impeccably crafted and enduringly chic.

Now a bold-faced name on the fashion scene, she rubs elbows with fellow alumni Sarah Hailes (Col ’93) and Beth Buccini (Col ’93), owners of the New York boutique Kirna Zabete, who carry her line in their Tokyo store. Indeed, worldwide expansion seems to be the trend among Cavaliers turned fashion entrepreneurs, and Randall will be debuting her clothing collection this fall.

She’s also expecting twins in July, but has no doubts about continuing on with her work. "I am living my ultimate dream," she says.

© 2007 by the U.Va. Alumni Association