WHEN a 15-year-old Jess Labey stepped through the doors of a boutique in her home city of Norwich, she instantly stopped in her tracks, struck not only by what she was seeing but also by the way in which each item was presented.
“I have never forgotten the feeling that I experienced that day,” recalled the owner of Jess Clothing Boutique. “Those products were absolutely beautiful and, ever since that moment, I have had an appreciation for beautiful things.”
So strong was that appreciation that she left school at 16 “to go to work, so that I could buy my own lovely things”.
Having always been creative and had a love of fashion and styling – “I was forever rearranging my bedroom and sitting down at my mum’s sewing machine to make bags and clothes” – it is no surprise that her first job was in the world of retail.
“I joined Next in Norwich,” she explained. “At the time the brand was very different from the Next we know today, and the store was beautiful.”
Over the next eight years, Jess held a range of positions within the store, gaining experience that she says has helped her throughout her life.
“I was learning all the time,” she said. “You don’t realise it, but everything you do in life, however small it seems at the time, teaches you something, and you look back on it later in life and realise that everything you do has real value and helps to shape who you are.
Working in retail gives you so many skills and I will always be very grateful for my time at Next.”
Indeed, Jess admits that making the decision to leave was not easy.
“I loved my job dearly, but I had also always wanted to pursue a career in cabin crew,” she said. “Typically, that opportunity came up when I was working in a role I loved but I felt it was time for a change.”
And it was a change which was to prove pivotal to Jess’s future in more ways than one.
“I got the job and absolutely adored it,” she said. “I never felt like I was going to work because I loved it so much.”
It was while carrying out that job that Jess met the person who would eventually persuade her to move to Jersey.
“I met my ex-husband in Norwich while we were both working in the aviation industry,” she reflected. “After our son was born, we decided to relocate to the Island, something which was a huge step for me, as I had always been a real home bird.”
Despite some misgivings about the move, Jess has since made Jersey her home, going on to work as a personal trainer while her children were young before returning to the world of retail.
“At that point, it was all about finding a job which I could fit around looking after my children,” she said. “It might sound as though I have had a very varied career, but everything I’ve done has been people-based. I’m also not someone who is very good at sitting down. I’m a very visual and physical person who likes to get stuck in, while working with people who need my help, and every job has revolved around that.”
In fact, Jess says that those values are very much at the heart of Jess Clothing Boutique, a business which first opened at The Trading Point in St Lawrence five years before relocating to its current premises in St Peter two years ago.
“No one goes into their dream job straight away, but I now have my dream job, even though it is incredibly demanding,” she said. “No one would imagine the hours this takes from me, but with my children now grown up, I have the time to devote to it. In fact, I now class this as my ‘needy child’.”
Inspired by her professional experiences over the years, together with her enduring love of beautiful things, Jess first started working on her business plan when Covid hit and the Island – together with most of the world – went into lockdown.
“Suddenly, I had time to think about things and spend hours online sourcing brands,” she said. “I wasn’t exactly sure at that point where I was going to go with the business, but, when the restrictions lifted, I started inviting family and friends to test the concept.”
That concept, she adds, was about more than simply “finding something nice to wear”.
“There was a strong wellness element to it,” she explained. “Having had my own health struggles, I realised that a lot of women experience different things – whether that’s ill health, divorce or their children leaving the nest – and can lose their way at a certain point.
I therefore wanted to build a business that would help them to feel better.
“I’m a strong believer in look good, feel good, not from a vanity perspective but from a wellness element. By talking to people, understanding what they are going through and what they want to achieve, we can help them build their confidence again. I always feel that no one needs to know what is going on behind the scenes in anyone else’s life but dressing well is like putting on a suit of armour, and you then feel that you can take on anything.”
Having tested that philosophy among her friends, Jess quickly realised that she needed a space where she could show off her stock and that, she says, is when the retail business really took off.
“I was at a Pilates class when I started chatting to another lady in the group, and she told me that she was in negotiations to take on the shop which is now The Trading Point at Carrefour Selous,” explained Jess. “I went with her to see the premises, and agreed to take on the upstairs, which gave me an incredible opportunity to build the business.”
And it was not long, she says, before she had built it to a point that it had outgrown that space.
“This is double the size of that space,” she said, gesturing to her St Peter store, “and it is on the ground floor, which makes it much more accessible.”
Within the store, which Jess describes as a “community destination”, is a range of fashion brands – all of which are exclusive to the boutique – as well as a selection of small homewares and accessories.
“When I started choosing the brands, I wanted to make sure that they all complemented each other, so that people could shop easily between them,” she said. “Probably because the business started during lockdown when styles were becoming more casual and people were looking for comfort, everything is very soft and has a lovely texture. They are also brands which help you to build a wardrobe where you can mix and match your items to create beautiful outfits. We’ve all been in stores where we’ve fallen in love with something, bought it and then realised it doesn’t go with anything else in our wardrobe, and that’s wasteful.
“My goal is to help people to avoid those mistake buys and pick something which really suits them. I would rather they leave the shop without having bought anything than taking the wrong thing.”
This approach, she says, sees her clientele return regularly.
“Some people come in weekly, others monthly and others twice a year,” she said. “We also often have two or three generations of a family shopping together, which is really rewarding to see and shows the diversity of the offer.”
While Jess is now joined in the shop two days a week by assistant Lynda Creedy, she stresses that, in line with her objectives and beliefs, she still carries out every role in the business.
“If you start a business and employ someone straight away to do certain tasks, you never know how your business runs,” she explained.
“You have to be the core of your business, which means being there and watching every single element, so that you know what works, what sells, which items to buy and who your customers are.
“Yes, that means making some sacrifices. I don’t go to the gym as often as I’d like to or socialise very much, but that’s the price you have to pay and I wouldn’t have it any [other] way. When I do something, I give it everything, and it is a real privilege to have been able to build Jess Clothing Boutique and create something which is more than a shop.
“This is a really relaxing place, which customers describe as their ‘happy place’. And it’s my happy place too. Some people might look down on retail as a career, but they don’t realise how many elements are involved in it, and I absolutely love it.”
