"I call my customers ‘fashion fearless,’" said Jessica Alpert-Goldman, the owner of the Hoboken-based handbag company, World According to Jess. "My bags are a statement. You have to be like, ‘I’m wearing a big, graphic, paint-by-numbers bag.’"
Like most children of the ’80s, Alpert-Goldman, 27, grew up on a diet of fearless fashions, from fingerless lace gloves to billowy balloon skirts. "Cyndi Lauper, Madonna and Pat Benatar were my idols," she said last week from her home in Hoboken. "And I guess they kind of still are."
With names like the Sassy Traveler, the Yee-Haa Baguette, and the Rockstar Carry-All, Alpert-Goldman’s handbags are like her intrepid idols: funky, fabulous, and tons of fun.
Originally from Canton Mass., Jessica Alpert-Goldman attended Syracuse University in upstate New York.
"I originally went to school for communications, but as soon as my parents dropped me off I switched my major to fashion," she said. "I knew I wanted to do fashion since I was five. I was always altering Barbie’s wardrobe. I used to make her balloon skirts."
In 1996, with a degree in hand, Alpert-Goldmand moved to Hoboken and began to explore the fashion industry.
"People say I’m so young, but when I got out of college I paid my dues," she said. "I literally had 14 jobs. I worked for Fila, Disney and haute couture designers."
And then she discovered the handbag.
"There’s nothing like a handbag in my world," she said. "It’s such an instant gratification purchase: you don’t have to fit into it, it always looks good."
After years spent espying be-bagged women struggling with their surplus of sacks, earlier this year Alpert-Goldman decided to design her own line of handbag that would be both funky and functional.
"I see women walking to the PATH dressed like they stepped out of Sex and the City, and they have one nice Prada bag and all of these other shopping bags to carry their lunch and stuff," she said. "I was always going out and finding cute bags, but they didn’t function. The World According to Jess is about fashion with function. I design the bags to consolidate – there’s tons of room."
Forever keeping function in mind, Alpert-Goldman sneaks hidden compartments into each bag. For instance, shoe storage space, built-in coin purses and laptop components are concealed in designs that range from brass-studded overnight totes to bike messenger bags adorned with red leather hearts.
Locally, World According to Jess bags can be found at Peper (1020 Washington St., Hoboken) and Down to Earth (527 Washington St., Hoboken). They can also be found at several exclusive boutiques in Manhattan including Verve (353 Bleecker St.) and Patricia Fields (10 East Eighth St.), and online at Girlshop.com.
"The name came from my mom," she said. "I used to test my mom’s boundaries. And my mom would say, ‘The world is not according to Jess," so I named my company World According to Jess to let my mom know that it is."