Entrepreneurs: The Ted Baker protégée going it alone

Bagging success: Ma left life in Japan behind to set up Jam Love London

16 May 2016

Fashion tycoon and Ted Baker chief Ray Kelvin doesn’t let talent stroll out of his “Tedquarters” lightly.

So when alumna Jia Ma departed his empire and later set up her own accessories line, you might think Kelvin would be disgruntled at going toe-to-toe with a former employee.

But instead, the retail guru is full of praise for the 36-year-old single mum, whose Jam Love London handbags are increasingly spotted on the shoulders of the well-heeled across the capital.

Kelvin tells the Standard he is proud she has “found her own path”, and praises her “expertise and dedication”. Kelvin’s endorsement has been complemented by a showing for her products in fashion bible Vogue.

Her snappy designs and clever marketing have helped her on the way to projected sales of £24,000 this year, with the figure predicted to double in 2017.

But Ma explains that the path to launching her own business was not an easy one.

Initially, all looked rosy. The fashion fan was born in China and moved with her family to Greenwich as a teenager.

She studied at Central St Martins art school and the London College of Fashion, specialising in product development. A job at Japanese clothing label Visvim followed, and then there was the two-year stint at Ted Baker.

She left the British fashion house in 2005 to move to Japan where she married, had two daughters and continued to work in international clothing design.

But Ma moved back to the UK with her daughters after separating from her husband. She registered the company name Jam Jar Project in 2013 and launched Jam Love London bags in May 2014.

“I left all comforts behind. I had a good salary and constant work, travelling lots. But it did not make me happy and free,” says the unassuming entrepreneur.

“So I used around £20,000 of my savings to take the plunge and set up something I believed would make me happy,” adds the casually dressed Ma over a cup of tea in her Swiss Cottage flat, where newly delivered boxes full of her latest designs cluster.

She has used her own lifestyle to inspire her products “from my experiences of running around the world as both a businesswoman and a mother.

I saw there was a gap in the market for a range of tote bags that could be functional, strong and good for flying, but also attractive with high quality”.

The result was a range of bags costing between £200 and £450. Each includes a section that holds a laptop, which can easily be pulled out when going through airport security, a section to hold passports, and over-the-shoulder handles.

The bags are made in factories in London and the Midlands, using waxed canvas from the Lake Como area of Italy, and delivered to Ma’s home office where she deals with online orders and distributes them directly. A number of products have also been sold in the Wolf & Badger boutiques in Mayfair and Notting Hill.

“I quickly found that I was growing a big customer base through word of mouth, with lawyers, journalists and British chief executives all buying the products,” Ma says.

She also believes great reviews and pictures on Twitter and Instagram have helped up its profile.

Its acolytes span far beyond these shores. “I heard from one of my Austrian fans that they were first introduced to my tote bags after spotting a lady using one at an airport queue in Chicago,” Ma says.

“They asked her about it and ordered one online as soon as they were back in Austria. It is such an exciting and rewarding tale.”

With the company due to break even this year and Ma pencilling in swift sales growth, she is confident that now is the right time to expand.

“I am looking to invest more this year to grow the business. I want to hire two people to help me with social media and day-to-day admin, exhibit at more trade shows, and hopefully open my first dedicated Jam Love London shop in the capital,” she reveals. In the longer term, she hopes to create and sell shoes.

Ma is already on her way to upping the brand’s profile. She is setting up shop in the Permanent Pop-Up in Soho, which was created to showcase independent fashion brands.

And the ultimate goal? “It would be amazing to team up with Ray [Kelvin] and create a line of handbags.”

That dream may one day become a reality, suggests Kelvin. “The doors at Tedquarters are always open to exchange adventures,” he says.

A trip back through those doors may not be far away.

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