Jasmyne Summers has spent the greater part of the last decade nurturing a life-long adoration for fashion design. In dedicating her career to studying garment construction and styling, and more recently undertaking the challenges of manufacturing dresses on a larger scale, she's hardly had a moment to pause and celebrate the success that her work has created.
Summers's bridal brand, Page XVII, is based out of downtown Statesboro, Georgia, home to the designer since she was a toddler. Her gowns, though, have been all over the world. This past February, Tiffany Pennywell Brown from the hit show “Love is Blind” was photographed in the Cayman Islands for the cover of MunaLuchi Bride Magazine, wearing one of Summers's original designs.
Summers's journey is a testimony of hard work, faith, support and ultimately reward; but she says she's just getting started. Walk with us through the story of one young woman who is stitching her childhood dreams into fabulous gowns.
Jasmyne Summers had just graduated from South Carolina State University in 2014, with a degree in fashion merchandising. She moved back home to Statesboro, Georgia while looking for a job. Receiving an offer for a stylist position at a major retail store in Boston, she made the difficult decision to turn it down.
At 22 years old, Summers says she felt like she was starting over. In school, she had focused on the styling aspects of fashion because she hadn’t believed that she would find success in designing, in spite of her passion for creating garments since early childhood.
Summers says in her uncertainty she asked God to guide her, and was led to the internet where she searched for sewing classes. She applied to Savannah Sewing Academy and after being accepted, she spent the next six months learning under the instruction of Master Tailor Gentleman Jim, while commuting and working at the Bath and Body Works in the Statesboro Mall.
Soon, Summers moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began creating ready-to-wear fashion while working for a celebrity designer. She says putting her own business prospects down for a season and gaining experience under a successful designer helped her learn how to pursue the dreams of her brand.
“That’s how you pave the way. You become a student and you learn their techniques,” said Summers.
But Summers said she reached a bump in the road after her last ready-to-wear collection in 2017. She took another leap of faith and began working as a bridal sales stylist.
“It’s just like Say Yes to the Dress…I loved it,” she said.
At the end of 2019, Summers left her job as a bridal stylist and, just one week later, she received an email from a bridal boutique in Mississippi asking to carry her bridal collection. The problem was that Summers had only designed wedding gowns on a first-come, first-serve basis and did not have a collection.
She began working immediately on developing what soon became her first bridal line called “Trinity Capsule.”
She was trying on an entirely new side of the fashion world, getting acquainted with the manufacturing and business scaling aspects of design. The grand release of her collection however was not as great of a success as she had hoped, with the quality of the gowns failing to measure up to standard. Thankfully, the owner of the boutique helped connect her to a manufacturer that could produce a more consistent line of gowns.
Her second line, Welcome to Genesis, is symbolic of starting over on top of a strong foundation. For Summers, that foundation is her family, especially her grandmothers and mother, and God.
Uplifting women by being an intimate part of a bride’s wedding day, from the day she tries on a gown until she walks down the aisle, Summer’s is devoted to her cherished role as their wedding dress designer.
“That's a dress and pictures that you have for the rest of your life. So honestly, I look at this role as a ministry,” she said.
Today you will find Summers in her studio space inside of the downtown Statesboro store-front, The Quince of Your Dreams, co-owned by one of her most influential mentors, Maria Proctor.
Even with the achievement of her designs reaching New York Bridal Fashion week three times and her gowns gracing the cover of popular bridal magazines, Summer's is committed to nurturing her skills through her mentors.
With the support of like minded professionals, Summers is currently completing a fellowship that will hopefully boost her business beyond its already abundant success, all the while continuing her designing ambitions.
”This is the beginning of the dream,” Summers said.
