Janessa Leone

The accessories designer gets real about running a business and overcoming personal hardship.

By Lindzi Scharf

Photography by Kate Jones

For Janessa Leone, it all started with one hat. The accessories designer was vacationing in Paris when she fell in love with a vintage chapeau she found at a boutique – and so began her journey toward becoming the celebrated style star she is today. “I wanted to do a full clothing line, but I didn’t have the funding or resources,” Leone explains, perched on a grey couch inside her Los Angeles home. “I loved the idea that Coco Chanel started with hats. Halston started with hats. Lanvin started with hats.”

THE RIGHT FIT

Leone spent three years finding the right person to recreate the Helen of Troy chapeau that launched a thousand hats. “It was a lot of research and development and going down really wrong paths,” she admits. However, once Leone found the right manufacturer, it proved to be kismet as she discovered the original design was created by a milliner with her last name. “It was common at that time for people to put their name inside the sweatband [of a hat]. So I cut the hat’s lining, looked at the sweatband, and found out that the milliner’s last name was also Leone. I was so in love with the idea that it was designed and made in Italy, but that it somehow wound up in Paris, and I ended up having it.” 

She officially launched her eponymous line Janessa Leoné with a small collection of six styles in 2013. The designs quickly landed at Barneys New York and on the heads of Hollywood royalty including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma Watson, – and most recently, literal royalty, Meghan Markle.

“The business side of it started from a PR relationship standpoint,” Leone says, explaining she was introduced to Los Angeles-based public relations consultant Ashley Kraus who “helped me get it to the right editors and the right influencers – and then it took off.”

Without formal training in business or design, Leone embraced a learn-as-you-go approach. “When Barney’s called, they were like, ‘Send me your line sheet,’” she says, before slipping into a whisper. “I was like, ‘What’s a line sheet?’”

While Leone proved to be a quick study, eight years later, she insists, “I’m still learning as I go. Now it’s at a different level, but I’ll talk to financial consultants and they’ll use these financial terms and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what that is.’ They’ll use these terms and assume I know because of the level and size of this company. They’re like, ‘She’s the CEO. She knows what that means.’ I don’t know what that means, but I’m just going to go with it. I’ve been faking a lot of it.”

FORWARD-FACING

While most eponymous brands have forward-facing designers, creative directors, or spokespeople, Leone’s social media is mostly limited to models adorned in her hats. The designer admits that her limited online presence is intentional. “I don’t want my brand and my business to be dependent on me sharing my life,” she says. “The brand is very much an idealized concept. Of course, the brand is a part of me, but it’s not the whole picture. It’s just a little part of my life that’s design-oriented and creative and has this persona of being a fashion person. In actuality, I’m a little bit nerdier, like, I snort when I laugh.”

Leone points out that there’s also a small, personal distinction between herself and her brand. “The brand actually has an accent over the e,” she says. “But my last name doesn’t. It’s a subtle distinguisher between the brand Janessa Leoné and myself. It provides peace of mind.”

She prefers to let her designs and the brand’s image speak for itself. “I always feel like people’s ideas of a situation are better than they actually are,” Leone explains. “Whatever that person’s imagination is going to create – about what this universe is and who I am – is going to be far better than the reality of it.”

THE SIDE HUSTLE

Throughout the years since its launch, the company has remained completely self-funded – thanks to Leone’s side hustle moonlighting as a nanny.

“When I graduated college, I started nannying for an old professor of mine in San Diego,” Leone says. “I lived at my dad’s so that I could save on rent and saved up all the money that I made. When I moved to L.A., I wanted to [pursue my dream], but I couldn’t afford to quit my job, so I kept nannying. It was higher stakes. People pay a little bit more money [in L.A.]. It was more high profile. So I made a little bit more money, which was lovely and I did that for three years. I actually had two employees working out of my house and I would go and nanny and then would come back and work on my brand.”

She used her salary from nannying to pay her employees. “They were doing operations and production,” Leone says. “I figured, ‘It’s going to take me twice as long to do that job well. It’s a time/money situation, so I can go nanny and be great at the nannying and use that salary to pay my employees and then they can do it and do a better job than I could do,’ because it’s just not my skill set. I was already listed as one of Forbes 30 under 30 [in 2015] and I was still nannying and I had employees. It was such a smoke show.”

At the time, Leone felt self-conscious about her side hustle. “It was embarrassing because you want people to see your brand as [successful],” she says. “You want it to be what people expect it to be and you feel like you’re going to lose some validity if they’re like, ‘It’s not really that successful. You’re still working on the side.’ If you hear an actor is working at a restaurant, your immediate thought is, ‘Oh well, they haven’t succeeded yet.’ That’s kind of the perception here instead of, ‘Well, no. They’re just setting themselves up to have a smart financial future.’” In hindsight, she’s proud of her choices – which have allowed her to expand her company to include fifteen employees, a 3,000 square-foot office in Santa Monica, a 1,000 square-foot brick-and-mortar store called The Edit by Janessa Leoné at Platform in Culver City, and a flourishing e-commerce business.

SOUL SEARCHING 

Prior to pursuing her brand, Leone was on her way to becoming a lawyer. “Up until I graduated college and even after, it was all about law school,” says Leone, who majored in English as an undergrad in San Diego. “Right before I went to take my LSAT, I had an almost pre-mid-life crisis. I had a lot of anxiety. Two months after I met my boyfriend [musician Kevin Jaemes], he was like, ‘You’re having a hard time in life. Let’s change up scenery,’ so we went to Paris.” They stayed for three months over summer vacation while in college. “We lived in this tiny little studio. There wasn’t even a bed. The couch turned into a bed. We were poor college students that checked out of our leases here.”

During that time, they fell in love. She found the hat. And she followed her heart.

“I shifted gears,” Leone says, sharing that her father, an accountant, fully supported her dream. “My dad was like, ‘You’re young. Try. See what happens. You can always go back to school.’”

Leone’s father continues to be an important presence in her life – even though he passed away in 2016. Much of her personal jewelry is a nod to him. “I have a necklace and engraved on the back of it, it says, ‘Stay happy and hopeful,’ which was my dad’s very last text to me,” she says. “We didn’t know he was going to pass away. It was sudden. I was complaining to him about something with work – and so he was telling me, ‘Stay happy and hopeful.’”

Her approach to life changed as a result. “It still is the hardest thing that I deal with on a daily basis,” she says. “My dad was my person.” But Leone says she’s learned to focus on the silver lining and what she can control. “I have such a strange relationship to [my father’s passing] because while it’s still full of sadness and it’s difficult, there’s also so much beauty and it’s been such a gift to my life.”

Leone says processing and coping with her grief has taught her “how to live authentically” and to evaluate “what’s worthy of your time and what’s not worthy of your time.” As a result, she says, “I have such a rich, full, more meaningful life and meaningful relationships with people.”

“There are people who go to India and they go on these realization [journeys] to try to find enlightenment,” she continues. “I feel like I instantly was given this ‘ah ha’ [moment] of: ‘This is what you need to do with your life. These are the relationships that matter. All of this other stuff is bullshit. We don’t need to focus on it. This is what’s important.’ In a way, I got so much clarity.”

Leone often reflects on what life was like before her world was turned upside down. “It almost feels like, previously, I was sleepwalking,” she says. “I think, ‘What was that life? That wasn’t a genuine life. This is a genuine life of living in a way where you know that everything can get taken away from you in a minute.’ When you’ve experienced that loss and you’ve also come through [to the other side of it], you have such an appreciation for all the beauty of life and also the complexity of it. In the darkness, there’s light that comes from it. I’m not afraid of death anymore. It takes away an element of anxiety and fear and it gives way to a lot of beauty and authenticity.”

THE CHALLENGES

Like every entrepreneur, Leone has also learned to navigate professional challenges. While her company is thriving – and has since expanded to include handbags, belts, scarves, and bandanas – that’s not to say its growth has come easily. “It’s been an extraordinary sacrifice in terms of personal life – at the expense of wellbeing,” she admits. “Now my focus is trying to scale back and prioritize health – mental health, physical health, and trying to get rid of some of the demands that have been put on my body.”

Leone admittedly wears a lot of hats, a pun that has likely been overused when referencing her role, but it’s no less an accurate a description. “I’m trying to balance being the CEO of a company,” she says. “Plus the designer; plus the marketing director; plus the person that needs to keep the culture alive managing the team.” She pauses. “I’m essentially a therapist and I love it. I love my team, but there are a lot of roles that I’m filing. Everyone has different needs. Everyone has different ways in which they express that. You’re managing the pieces, like, ‘How can I make sure that everyone is fulfilled and happy and their best self?’”

PUTTING WELLNESS FIRST

Leone says she’s learned to prioritize self-care in order to be the best version of herself. “I’m very regimented with time off,” she explains. “In the morning, from six to eight, it’s quiet. I’ll sit here on the deck, have coffee or tea, read, journal. I do a quiet morning. I won’t look at my phone until at least eight. In the middle of the day, I’ll block an hour off on the calendar. Everyone shares calendars, so we all know when we can reach each other. There’s a calendar block everyday that is like, ‘Don’t bother me. I’m breathing. I’m resetting.’”

She’s also quick to credit the importance of mental health support. “I love my therapist,” Leone says. “She’s almost like a business manager, too, because she knows everything. It’s nice to have a place to be supported that’s not in the context of my relationship because that’s exhausting too and that’s draining on my boyfriend. It’s not ideal for me to constantly be stressed. You don’t get to just check out and be off work and go have fun. The pressure is high. I’ve religiously had therapy twice a week for years. It’s a commitment, but this is what I’ve got to do to be who I need to be.”

LOCKDOWN LIFE

During the pandemic, Leone made the decision to move to Paris for half the year. “That’s always been the goal,” Leone says. “I never thought it was possible because I manage a team, but now everyone is working remotely so I was like, ‘Why not now? I’m moving to France.’”

She spent the first half of the pandemic in Los Angeles and the second half in Paris. “My team did great,” she says. “It was definitely a challenge figuring out the time differences and the samples. I designed an entire collection from start to finish [during quarantine]. We figured it out and now that’s going to be the way things go. I have an international talent visa, so I’ll live between both places.”

The irony is that Leone once thought she despised the city she now calls her second home. “I had been to France with a girlfriend and hated it,” she remembers. “I had a bad experience. When my boyfriend and I met, [thirteen years ago], I was like, ‘I don’t like France.’ He’d already gone to college there. He loved it. He spoke French. He was like, ‘No, no, no. Let me take you.’” 

“We fell in love there and it’s our spot now,” Leone says. “A lot of things go back to Paris.”

Even so, the bi-continental designer relishes the time she spends in Los Angeles. “This is my happy space,” she says.

HOW SHE LIVES…

When Leone isn’t working from home, she enjoys spending time outside gardening or in her ice bath and sauna. “I live a healthy lifestyle,” she says, walking into her backyard as the sound of birds chirping and the scent of jasmine fill the air. “I’ll get a run in or I’ll sit in the sauna before work starts every day. I can’t wait to create a wellness room.” But that goal will have to wait. “My boyfriend has taken over the garage as a music studio,” she laughs.

THE RINGS

“The majority of these rings were gifted to me and they have big sentimental value,” she says, pointing to two delicate rings with the initial P. “This signet has a P on it for Pat, my dad’s name. I also have another little one with a P on it. They’re both special to look at and be able to feel like he’s here. I don’t ever take them off.” She points to another ring. “This was actually a high school graduation present,” she says. “It was one of my very first Tiffany’s pieces. It was actually from my dad.”

THE NECKLACE

“This is a pretty locket,” she says. “It has a photo of me and my dad in it that I wear often.”

WALLACE

“Wallace is three,” she says of her golden retriever. “He’s an angel puppy. He kind of helped save my life because I lost my dad and then I lost my dog right after. It was a really, really dark time and they were both sudden and so Wallace came in and brought joy back to our life. He’s a good guy.” She found him in Toronto. “That’s where they’re reviving the golden breed,” she explains. “They’re helping them become cancer free. It’s a longevity project that I became involved in. I had a golden retriever who passed away from cancer. Goldens are dying of cancer often, so I went down a long road of trying to find a breeder that was reviving the golden breed.”

THE BLANKET - SCARF

“This is our very first foray into knits,” Leone says. “This is our knit blanket scarf that I designed in France. At the time, all the indoor restaurants were closed [due to the pandemic] so you had to eat outside. I realized, ‘I need a scarf slash blanket.’ So I designed this. It sold out twice, so it’s now going to be a mainstay. It’s a big scarf, but it’s also a good throw for the house and also a throw if you’re out at a restaurant and cold. I love this thing.”

THE SCULPTURE

“I worked with an artist for our last spring campaign,” she says, referencing a sculpture by Spencer Rawles. “He’s a multidisciplinary artist. We worked together to try to capture the energy of the collection and we put it into a different form. We did eight different textured sculptures for the campaign and for photoshoots. Some of them are at the office, some of them are here. It’s fun to collaborate on something that’s not a hat or a handbag.”

THE COFFEE TABLE AND PAINTING

“A good friend of mine Sarah Karkenny – who also designed the [Italian] boucle chair at my store – is a talented interior and furniture designer. We collaborate on a lot of different pieces,” she says. Above hangs a painting by Angela Allen. “I just collaborated with an artist and made this as well. She’s an independent artist who is just starting out. I love to support women that are starting out. I just got this piece last week. She usually does more small format, but she did this big format custom piece for me. I’m really happy with it. I found her through Instagram. She just did a custom piece for our office as well because we just redesigned our office.”

THE CANDLE

Leone recently designed a candle for the brand, which will be released this fall. “I went to this place in Paris where they diagnose you with your olfactory preference,” she says. “It’s a whole experience. You smell all these different scents and then they create an olfactory profile. So I got that and then I worked with a chemist here to make a scent. I didn’t make the vessel myself, but I did the prototype myself and designed it and now I have someone making it.”

A LOVE OF POTTERY

Leone enjoys making pottery. While the pieces in her kitchen aren’t her own, she has a potter’s wheel in her backyard. “I don’t have a kiln here, so I spin it and toss it,” she says. “I do it to get out of my head. Having clay spin between your hands is meditative.” She also enjoys painting in her free time. “Sometimes I like to dip in different creative modalities to try to get juices flowing,” she says. “I’m not great at it, but it’s fun. I love to paint and draw. I like to do all different types of things – to get out of my own way. I feel like when you’re in a creative field and you do your one creative path that worked well one season in your life, it doesn’t work the same the next season, so if you try to force that same path, it usually just frustrates you. It’s like you have to get out of your own way and let the art take its own form.” She started exploring other forms of creativity after listening to a podcast with musician Thom Yorke. “Doing something else that’s creative gives his brain an opportunity to be like, ‘Let me reorient and come at the problem a different way and come up with a different solution,’” she shares. “So it’s not path-oriented, it’s more process-oriented.”

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Leone enjoys gardening in her free time. She also likes taking ice baths outside. “This is not pretty,” Leone says opening up a white ice chest in her backyard. “I literally sit in here for six minutes. It was part of my therapy. It’s helpful to restart your autonomic nervous system. When you go through a trauma, you get stuck in the fight and flight and so when you need to retrain your body to be calm, this is a good modality because it immediately resets that system. It’ll stress you out at first, but then it’ll help you get calm. It’s a practice to strengthen your resistance to stress. It helps process trauma because you breath through it.”

THE ARTWORK

“That moon is by a beautiful artist named Stella Maria Baer – also an Instagram find,” Leone says. “She does moons and stones in different settings. That was one of her first pieces. I probably wouldn’t be able to afford her pieces now. I got in early, which I’m happy about. She was just starting out. I was just starting out, so we traded product and I got that.” Nearby sits another piece by her boyfriend’s sister-in-law Alyssa Breid who is also an artist. “I love having a little piece of her in here.” The basket is from Provence. “I bring back little found objects that remind me of my travels,” she says.

HER PIECE

Leone points to a picture she painted of her father. “I gave that to him as a gift,” she says. “My dad had the most distinguishable, noticeable laugh, so it was kind of an inside joke.”

THE HOUR GLASS

“I usually have an hour or two of deep work on my calendar,” Leone says. “Do you know the theory of deep work? It’s undistracted, completely focused work. You can’t look at your phone, your e-mail, or anything. There are no disruptions. It’s amazing the amount of work that you can get done when you focus. The science is that it takes about twenty minutes for your brain to get into the critical thinking part of a task and then if you get distracted, it takes fifteen minutes to get back into it. The theory is in modern day society, none of us are actually getting into the deep critical thinking of the work. I use [the hour glass] because obviously I still have to stay on schedule. It’s a way that I can disconnected from all electronics. That’s a good way to know how much longer I have with my deep work. I found it in France.”

THE SAMPLE STYLE

“I can’t ruin it because it’s the only one we have,” Leone says, clad in a AW21 sample she borrowed from the office. Ironically, the designer doesn’t usually have many (if any) hats at her home. “I have so many hats at the office. I like that to be the hat place and then whenever I need one, [I’ll bring one home]. I usually steal samples and only wear designs that aren’t out in the world so that no one has anything to compare it to.”

HER SENSE OF STYLE

Leone likes to stick to a minimalist uniform of sorts. “It’s about comfort and ease,” she says in a black blazer she found at a small boutique in Paris paired with Citizen jeans and sunglasses from Saint Laurent. “It’s like, ‘What can I do to quickly throw something on to be comfortable and to be confident and that’s going to be quick?’ I love [Barack] Obama’s old philosophy. He would take the choice out of it to avoid decision fatigue. He would pre-[select] his outfits. He would only wear blue and only wear black and his ties were always blue. He always had the same thing so he didn’t have to make a decision. I love that philosophy.”

MINIMALIST CHOICES

As a result of her Obama-inspired style philosophy, Leone likes to keep things simple. “I have a pretty minimal wardrobe – a set combination of things and then every season, I’ll update it, but that way I don’t have to decide what I’m going to wear; it’s one less decision in my day,” she says, wearing her favorite boots from By Far. “Designers have to make so many decisions – with the tiniest things. You have ten options for a type of stitch. It’s a lot. So my wardrobe involves as few decisions as possible.” She adds, “I’m not good at time management, which is why I have to set up boundaries to be intentional. The last thing that would ever help would be getting ready for an hour. I never have an hour in between appointments.”

PARISIAN FLAIR

Leone likes to bring a touch of Paris into her Los Angeles home, so that her home-away-from-home never feels too far away. “I love being entrenched in a big city and having the culture of a big city, but there’s something unique about Paris,” she says. “It’s like a little village. There are all these little communities and little districts. Where we live – it’s like a little village. You have your little cheese shop and you have your little coffee shop and everyone knows you. It’s like a small town yet you don’t have to compromise on culture. We live next door to the Picasso Museum. It’s really special.”