View Blogs By Author: Jessica Turner

My name is Jessica Turner. I was born in Orlando, Florida, and continued moving every four years of my life to various cities in the southeast as a result of my father's career. No, not the military, Home Depot, if you are wondering. In many ways, I learned to enjoy change and find the uniqueness in each place, each time discovering something new about myself.

I have a natural curiosity for pretty much everything. I went to university at Appalachian State in the North Carolina mountain town of Boone, where I wanted to study all subjects, but settled on majoring in just two: Art, which has been my passion since I was a child, and psychology, due to my need to understand people, including myself. Painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, printmaking and drawing became outlets for my creative energy, and as much as I love making art, I knew in my heart that I could never survive on an artist's salary.

Speaking of jobs, I have a very diverse job background. I once worked in a head/intimacy shop, I was a gymnastics instructor, counseling center administrator, faux painter, pub bartender, designer, Tuscan tour guide, tour operator and freelance writer. You name it, I've done it. I guess it's what makes me interesting and more rounded as a human.

I love traveling. I was fortunate that my parents were cool enough to take us around the world on holidays as opposed to buying us lots of junk that would end up forgotten about in a closet somewhere. My curiosity for other cultures and my need to study again brought me to Florence, Italy in 2009, where I continue to live and work. I worked on credit towards my Masters of Fine Arts degree, while falling in love with Italian food, language, traditions, men and above all, fashion. I absolutely love fashion. I never really realized how artistic fashion could be until I lived here. I like the idea that people can express their individuality through what they wear and how they wear it. The risk and innovation involved in trendsetting are what draw me to fashion and to creating designs of my own. Nobody knows fashion like the Italians. It's like engrained in their genetic make-up. I spent lots of time studying and imitating them and now, I consider myself to be daring, fashion forward and in the "know". That's it… my life in a nutshell.