Wellington’s creative comeback — with Yu Mei
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Kia ora koutou, welcome to this very special episode of Shared Lunch, where we are sitting down with the creator and founder of Yumei, Jessie Wong. We're going to talk a bit about the formation of Yumei, how the business has evolved over the last 10 years, and then we're going to dive into a real special project close to Jessie's heart, which is a Wellington Biennial coming up this weekend. So let's get into it.
Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. Everything you're about to see and hear is current at the time of recording.
Thanks so much for joining us today, Jessie. Can you tell us a little bit about why you started UMA? What problem you're solving and the journey you've been on since?
So I started UMA 10 years ago when I couldn't find a bag that would fit everything I needed to carry in a day. So that was my laptop, lunchbox, visual diary, charger, makeup bag, you know, the kitchen sink. And I think that that was a pretty common thing. story at the time for students. I was a student in Dunedin. I had, you know, a canvas tote with all of my twiles and bits and pieces for my design degree. And I really just wanted something that reflected my design aesthetic value and materials and just functioned really well and had that utility to it. So that's why I started making bags.
And every, you know, a lot of people have had ideas, but you went and executed it. What was around you to go, yep, I'm going to make this happen. And how'd you go about that? And then how did it turn in from, you know, creating a bag for yourself to, you know, creating bags for people right around the world to be using now?
I'd always wanted to have my own business somehow, but I don't know if it was that. I just love making and then I loved making for myself. I worked in a fashion boutique when I was a student and I remember walking in one day with one of my bags and my boss, Amy, said, what's that and where did you get it? And I said, I made it. And she's like, OK, well, when you make them for real, bring them to me. I want the exclusive. So that was sort of the first push into the commercial realm. But I suppose in New Zealand, especially in the fashion industry, if you want to be able to build a brand and craft things, you have to be able to do almost the full breadth of tasks within that yourself. Everything from the construction of the bags to procuring materials to photo shoots to sales to, you know, opening stores, etc.
You have to be able to kind of do it all yourself.
I've known you for a long time now, but I remember I knew you before I met you because I'd see Yume bags everywhere. Where does Yume come from, the name, and why did you choose that, and what does that mean to you?
So it's my name, Jessica Yume Wong. It's my middle name. Every girl on my dad's side of the family has something Mei. Ling Mei, Mei Mei, Hou Mei, Yume. Yu means kind of like beautiful, jade, pretty, and then Mei means little sister, young girl. And so... It just made sense for that to become the brand.
What inspired Jessie Wong to start Yume?
Every product you create in every leather goods that you have created and now that incredible recyclable nylon you're using, it all has a lot of depth to it. Can you tell us a bit about your design process, like how you come up with your concepts, what they mean, often named after somebody you know?
So the genesis of each bag is the personality of someone close to me that had a need that wasn't being met. So we have the Brooke bag. We have, you know, the Claudia tote. We have the Brady bag. And these are, you know, people close to me in my life that, you know, I sort of saw a bit of a caring problem. And usually if you're solving a problem in a design, there'll be other people who gravitate towards it. On the other side of the coin, I was down in Dunedin and I that area around central Otago is where New Zealand deer are farmed. And so I was introduced to the material, which actually is an incredible regenerative material from our land, which would otherwise be landfilled.
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