In the height of reality TV, with Hollywood being so close to home, fashion and lifestyle has become Manila’s addiction. Now more than ever, people are thirsty for information on the latest trends, tips on glam living, and guidance on how to incorporate it into their daily lives.
Living, and Giving, Style
This is how Jenni Epperson gained her following. As a stylist, personal shopper, blogger, media personality, wife, and mom, she lives and breathes Manila’s clamor for hip and fabulous living, all while doing her groceries and whipping up lunch. She knows what it’s like to live on the fab lane of Manila’s extremely busy streets, and have shared the ride with Manila’s fashion circles and with thousands of online fashionistas through her blogs, Welovejenni and Mabuhaygirl, and now through jenniepperson.com.
When asked how it all began, she humbly replies: “I have, like many out there, sought guidance to get me here, and this is what drives me to share what I know”. This is how Jenni became one of the country’s most renowned stylists and biggest internet personalities. She is both inspiring and relatable. And while the rest of us don’t get to dress politicians and celebrity icons, or rub elbows with top designers in the biggest fashion events, she exposes a side to her that makes anyone reading her blogs understand that fabulousity is not out of reach.
Fashion Roots
Her experiences have been key to her expertise. After earning a degree in Mass Communications, this St. Scholastica College Alumna first worked for a major advertising agency before going into the world of fashion with the Linea Italia Group, an exclusive Italian boutique.
Combining dedication with her passion for fashion, she climbed the ranks as she started from sales assistant to merchandiser, and then from operations manager to the title of president for Linea Italia in 1994. With a number of shops, a hundred employees under her wing, she was at her prime, working 24 hours, seven days a week and living the ultimate cosmopolitan life as a very accomplished single female.
A New Chapter
Much of this changed when she married her beau, Tom Epperson, an American photographer, in 1995. Having her daughter later on made her decide to move forward to a new chapter in her life, and leave her workaholic days behind. She resigned from Linea Italia and shifted her focus to her family, one of the toughest and most rewarding decisions of her life.
Armed with her desire to balance family and career, she starts from scratch and ventured into styling. With fashion being her forte, it wasn’t long until Manila’s it-scene took notice. After working alongside her husband in 2004 for a successful print ad, a multitude of opportunities opened to her. In the same year, she won MTV Style Awards’ “Stylist of the Year”. She started raking in prestigious clientele including celebrities and politicians. She became a consulting stylist for a female fashion brand called Tweeds and a fashion editor for Chalk, a famous youth magazine. Later on, some of her biggest breaks came in, including being the creator and creative director for a magazine supplement for Philippine Daily Inquirer called Just Shop, and being a TV host for Lifestyle Network’s first local shopping show entitled Good Finds.
Breaking into the Blogosphere
Her new jobs allowed her to pursue her love of fashion while staying at home and taking care of her family. This naturally made her gravitate towards blogging in 2006, which allowed her to share her life to many as a regular mom in a very extravagant world of fashion. She began posting what’s for dinner beside posts on what kind of shoes are in. This appealed to many as a stylish and modern mom’s sensibility, gaining her thousands of readership off the bat. Readers read on post after post and learned not just about fashion but about her life, watching her beautiful children, Aryanna and Dylan, grow through the years.
Whether she is scouring the best finds in boutique racks or supermarket shelves, she hits the mark for many urban Filipinos out there. A fashion and lifestyle guru in every sense, her blog is a great source of so many things from healthy and delicious recipes, to what big event or trend is coming Manila’s way.
Jenniepperson.com
Perhaps her most obvious and most valuable traits – her positivity, creativity, and passion have drawn many successes towards her throughout the years, and this is the same formula that she applies to her newly launched website, jenniepperson.com.
With the current success of her blog, she decided to push the envelope and finally pursued a long time dream – to create an interactive website wherein she can share her knowledge and experiences on a larger scale. Her website features the newest updates on many categories including fashion, gadgets, and food, and in true Jenni appeal, an advice column and a tab to feature her amazing readers. Her ability to communicate and relate genuinely to her readers and fans is one of her biggest assets. She is real, which she demonstrates daily in her blogs with her many informative yet quirky posts and signature gay lingo, consequently making her one of the most recognizable names in the country’s fashion industry.
The Road Ahead
Jenni Epperson has come a long way from her humble beginnings, and when asked about the road ahead she glows of optimism. With every venture of hers translating into victories, everyone can surely expect greater things from this daring fashionista.
Just as the country’s patronage of lifestyle and fashion continues to grow, Jenni’s reach is limitless.
In the midst of fashion TV shows and reality soaps, it’s nice to know that Manila has something authentic and homegrown to turn to. After all, it may be hard to become a celebrity, but it takes a lot more to become a role model… something Jenni has naturally grown into, and continues to be, more and more with every blog post.
