Meet Jennifer Tierney of Jeanne Nuage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Tierney. 

Jennifer, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hello 🙂 My name is Jennifer Tierney. My full name is Jennifer -Jeanne- Tierney. I am a women’s wear designer, entrepreneur, and formerly a professional ballet dancer. My story as a designer started with ballet costuming, elaborate bodices, and tutus made for full-length ballets. From there, runway felt like a natural progression; larger-than-life designs, elevated by the runway, lights, and glamour. I adore runway and couture design for this reason. My first show was in 2018 with West 18th St Fashion Show. Soon after that, I showed in Kansas City Fashion Week Fall of 2018. I’ve designed for both now, multiple times as well as Omaha FW and JCCC Fashion Show. Since then, I have also started taking fashion, business, and liberal arts classes at Johnson County Community College. While I’m originally from Sacramento, CA, I feel “born” as a designer in Kansas City, very much a product of what this city has to offer. 

Since establishing my brand, I have shown this year already in KCFW, Omaha FW, and Columbia Fashion Week. Kansas City has been incredible in supporting my dreams and now the dreams of our entire team. We release womenswear designs XS-XL and typically only produce a few in each size. Many of our designs have been selling out almost immediately and I couldn’t be more thankful to this city for that incredible reality. 

My brand JEANNE NUAGE (proun: “jean new-auge”) is a tribute to my grandmother. I was lucky enough to be named after her as she was one of the most adventurous, delightful, intelligent and kind women I would ever meet. She passed away when I was only 11yrs old but she had already made an incredible impact on my life. She was constantly traveling to every corner of the world. She designed and made several very elaborate and important occasion dresses for me when I was young. She even brought me to my very first ever ballet. My grandma somehow planted every seed of inspiration I find in myself. When I was a professional dancer, right before I would enter the wings, I would close my eyes and ask my grandmother to watch me from her cloud. “Nuage” translates to ‘Cloud’ from French. 

Well, Grandma Jeanne, I hope you are still watching. This one is for you, a womenswear lifestyle brand that believes at the core of what we do, that women deserve to feel fashionable, feminine, and unrestricted every day. Women are superheroes. This is the brand built to empower an active lifestyle and frankly, keep up. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Business owners get used to a certain amount of bumps in the road. These past couple of years though have been particularly turbulent. Ha! 2020 brought on the biggest letdown of my career thus far. I was scheduled to premiere my brand JEANNE NUAGE at Paris Fashion Week. I couldn’t believe it…Paris FW! Seeing as my biggest design and life influence comes from my Grandma Jeanne who used to bring me tokens from Paris when I was a little girl, this was a dream come true. Due to Covid, though, those plans had to be canceled. I immediately looked to the talent and resources of this city. Everything I had riding on Paris, I moved towards building my shop and team in Overland Park. We launched our first Collection Fall 2020 and are about to release an incredible Fall/Winter ’21! While showing in Paris would have been absolutely unforgettable, and establishing the business during a pandemic is not something I recommend attempting ;p, I feel good about where we are currently. I lot has happened in a year. We have doubled in size and capability. I am very proud of all of us. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I was fortunate enough to enjoy a very lovely and fulfilling professional ballet career. I left home at 17 yrs. old and have been working as an artist ever since. As a dancer specifically I realized that strength and movement feel powerful. Active living and working unrestricted in our daily lives are 100% relatable to that idea. The fashionable element of my brand is visually obvious. I am highly inspired by the curves of the body and creatively reshaping feminine silhouettes. Although, our JEANNE NUAGE brand -promise- comes from a place of comfort. The reason for this is two-fold. 1st is the professional ballet dancer’s influence, a need to feel powerful, strong, and unrestricted by my wardrobe choices. 2nd is the fact that I had been struggling undiagnosed until just recently with endometriosis. This disease can cause an incredible amount of pain and bloating for women. Feeling both the desire to dress fashionably and comfortably, I set out on my quest to source the most luxurious fabrics and create the most intelligent designs. Runway-worthy fashion with comfort -guaranteed- I love owning my business and designing into my brand JEANNE NUAGE. Each and every day that I happen to get a testimony from a woman feeling both stylish and uninhibited by her clothing, I go home a happy designer. To me, that is “mission accomplished” and I plan on building the JN army wielding both fashion and comfort one beautiful lady at a time. 

What’s next?
In one year, we have doubled in both size and capability. Just recently, we relocated our shop in Overland Park, Ks. We now have double the amount of space that we had the previous year which has already been fantastic for both the production and shipping elements of the company. I’m also currently looking into a boutique space to sell and showcase my designs. I haven’t decided if I want to stay on the Kansas side or venture into Missouri, possibly somewhere in the Crossroads area. I’m sure I’ll eventually want us to be on both sides of the state line. I absolutely adore every corner of the KC metropolitan area and I know that our base will be here. Currently, you can best find us online at www.jeannenuage.com We are about to release our Fall/Winter ’21 Collection and I promise you it is really somethin’ 😀 

Pricing:

• Pieces starting around $30
• Pricepoint range $30-$75

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.jeannenuage.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanne.nuage/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeannenuage2021
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeanneNuage
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-IJcYZjsJX-dWgA6IX18BQ
• SoundCloud: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenniferjtierney?lang=en
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/jeannenuage/_created/

Image Credits
Jason Atherton
Paul Versluis