About Jenae Michelle | Range Of Emotion

ABOUT RANGE OF EMOTION

range of emotion started in 1996 with a little table at Eastern Market in Washington DC. I love making gloves, scarves and garments but my primary focus has always been bags made from recycled and vintage textiles. For over 20 years my mantra has been the same. Fewer things, better things. I am proudly planted in the “slow fashion” movement. Each one of a kind bag, glove or garment is made to be durable, functional and beautiful. And, besides that, you are the only one who has it!

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ABOUT JENAE

As a child, I spent my summers on a farm in Indiana with my grandma, Evelyn. She taught me how to sew. She told me stories about how, during the Depression, she would save tiny scraps of good wool from a worn garments. Then, she would piece them together to make warm blankets. They were called “postage stamp” quilts. They were beautiful.

In my mid 20’s, I was in graduate school and became extremely ill. After a few critical years, I was given the correct diagnosis, proper medication and my health slowly improved. While I was still in the hospital I laid out a pattern in the hallway and made myself a wool coat. People noticed my coat and that year I made nearly thirty coats for people. After all of the coat making, I gathered my glorious scraps of wool and began piecing them together to make handbags. My grandma, unknowingly, had given me everything I needed for my new, unexpected artistic life.

25 years later, I am still creating bags that are primarily made from recycled garments, always thoughtfully constructed, durable and beautiful.

MISSION & VISION

range of emotion would like to change the world. Our countries desire to buy cheap, then throw away and replace is causing irreparable damage to the environment. Inhumane working conditions and landfills full of synthetic garments are just a few of the side effects of “fast fashion”. There is another way. Range of emotion has a different vision for our culture, one where people reuse, recycle and choose to buy Fewer things, Better things.

Today, I am happy to have a community of thousands of women who carry my bags and are powerful and hopeful examples that there is another way. My goal is to continue to make bags, gloves and garments that delight you for years to come.