Jen Sims

Individually made, one by one

Jen is an accessories designer-maker, specialising in hand stitched leatherwork.

Based in London, she works from her micro-studio under the label Sakk

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Through each individually made piece, I am offering the possibility of a quiet confidence and soulful uplifting for both maker and wearer, an invitation for connecting on a deeper and emotional level. This is the essence of my Sakk brand.

Culturally, I am my own thing - the way I feel, the things I identify with. Due to my mixed race heritage, I draw on an East meets West aesthetic, giving my work a subtle almost unconscious oriental influence.

Helped by a scholarship from the Leathersellers’ Company, I came to the RCA as a traditional hand stitch leatherworker and have undergone quite a transformation in my practice with much more of my personality and sensibilities showing through, adding a new, more intuitive and spontaneous way of working, to my slow, carefully considered leatherworking process.

Research

I have been researching what making by hand can do for us, on both a personal and societal level, what I call ‘making as meditation’. And within this, comparing the appreciation of the handmade in England and Japan, from Savile Row to Living National Treasures, our education systems and our new trade deal.

‘If the hand skill is repetitive, it can free our minds, achieving a meditative state and along with the achievement, a sense of euphoria.

Making fashion items slowly, by hand, means we can wrap ourselves in this sense of wellbeing.’

I make for me, for you

Noguchi talks about stepping out of the constraints of our time, and our work becoming unrestricted and accessible to all, not just those in that particular time and place. As mediator between the past, present and future, this is what I’d like to achieve in my own work.

Designing for gentle simplicity and clever transformation.

The use of vegetable tanned leather, this natural product, that has been treated in a slow traditional way, anchors my work and means that each piece is unique and made in a carefully considered way, resisting over-production and waste.

I’ve chosen an older model to represent my work because of my outings as a Flaneur both feeling and observing, women in particular, becoming invisible as we get older.

The Pogi — Pogi is a contraction of the word PODAEGI - the Korean word for a papoose. The Pogi is the ultimate in Making as Meditation, combining my traditional hand stitched leather working process and Flexi-Fold minimalist system of making for the outer, and a hand knitted inner suede bag, which is detachable. This inner bag is beautifully soft and gives a lovely textural contrast with the traditional bridle leather outer bag.

Traditional bridle leather kindly provided by Sedgwick & Co.

Ginko walking — The steam pleated Ginko bag, made under my Flexi-Fold, system, transforms and expands, stitched at the selvedge to avoid waste and give a more delicate feel.

The Mini Sakk — Turning to knitting, this traditionally therapeutic pass time. In contrast to my leatherworking process, the Mini Sakk was a spontaneous and unscripted make. Re-creation for recreation

The bird

I also enjoy a sense of fun and the juxtapositions of the things I make are also jarringly obvious. The absurd and the refined, the frivolous and the practical, the fun and the serious, the speedy and the painfully slow.