U of A Designer Launches Clothing Line in New York Fashion Week

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Anna Taylor- CEO of Judith & James clothing line

Twenty-two-year-old Arkansan fashion designer and owner of international clothing company Judith & James, Anna Taylor, featured her spring collection this past Sunday in Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. Taylor founded Judith & James as a college student in the apparel studies program of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The company is intended to help alleviate poverty in the Kenyan slums through vocational training and employment for local women.

Fashion week organizers contacted Taylor in July and offered her a place in the event to debut her spring collection on a national scale. Taylor designed 15 looks for the show made by women in Nairobi slums. Arkansas boutiques Tulips and Beyond Cotton will sell Judith & James designs.

Top Chef host Padme Lakshma will be wearing Judith & James designs in an upcoming show. Taylor has also participated in two Mercedes-Benz Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week runway shows.

Fourteen women graduated in July from the sewing training program Taylor created in Nairobi, Kenya. Company namesake and the first Kenyan Judith & James employee, Judith, supervises the training program participants and the Judith & James seamstresses stationed in Kenya. Taylor has recently expanded the line to include shoes and other leather accessories and also plans to implement the Judith & James company model in other developing countries to employ and empower women out of poverty.

Judith & James is a high fashion clothing company with an international focus. The chief executive officer and founder, Taylor formed the company after living in Kenya and experiencing the rampant poverty in the Nairobi slums first-hand. She envisioned vocational training and employment as a sustainable solution to the poverty problem in developing countries. Judith & James is based in Kenya and employs local seamstresses to manufacture Taylor's designs. Judith & James compensates all employees with fair wages and uses locally sourced fabrics for each piece produced. Visit http://www.judithandjames.com for more information.