'All I can do is think about what's next'

Accident can't dull designer's sunny spirit

Major injuries from a car accident in September didn't keep Jess Meyer from designing her clothing line. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

At a recent cocktail party to preview her fall collection, Jess Meyer looked more Palm Beach socialite than Boston fashion designer. With her post-vacation tan and sun-kissed, wavy hair, the pretty 30-year-old was easy to spot as she worked the room in a curve-hugging, strapless batik sundress of her own creation.

Just a few months earlier, Meyer would have stood out for other reasons: Her neck and back were encased in a steel halo brace that had been drilled into her skull. And that was an improvement over the full-body fiberglass cast attached to the halo she'd worn for five long months following a horrific, near-fatal car accident last September. The talented entrepreneur had been left immobilized just as her Myre fashion label was taking off.

"Every doctor who has seen me has said I shouldn't have survived," Meyer says. "No one has had as many breaks in their spine as mine without having partial permanent paralysis or loss of vision."

The accident happened just as Meyer was finding her creative footing.

"I had been designing for two years, but for the first time I made what I wanted to make and didn't think about what I should include," she says. "I had an epiphany: Do just what I love," and skip the basics. Every piece would be special.

The approach had been working. Meyer dipped into her vast collection of vintage fabrics, which she's been collecting for years. "I like the juxtaposition of old materials with a modern sensibility and strong pieces that stand on their own," she explains. Boutique owners liked it, too. Meyer's outfits are both girly and sophisticated, pairing, say, a low-back ruffled top in a colorful print over an immaculately fitted grey satin pant. Either piece could update a wardrobe.

"The response has been great," says Alexandra Dowling, sales and marketing director for Myre, sold locally at fashion-forward boutiques like Turtle in the South End, the Velvet Fly in the North End, and Stil in the Natick Collection. Because of the limited supply of each vintage fabric, store owners get to choose print exclusives, another plus.

Using only vintage or repurposed fabrics also fit in with Meyer's green design philosophy. Even her studio is green, located in the eco-friendly Macallen Building in South Boston.

But just as everything was coming together, Meyer's body was broken apart.

She'd worked nonstop last summer, forgoing time off until her spring line was complete. "Everything was done. The samples were ready. The launch party was planned. I was going to relax," she recalls.

On her way to East Hampton, N.Y., for Labor Day weekend, the car she was riding in was hit so hard it flipped over and crashed into a tree. Her neck, back, and hip were broken.

Even in the ambulance, Meyer was thinking of her clothing line. "I was carrying my new look book and took it out," she says. "It still has blood on it."

Luckily a trauma center was nearby. Meyer's doctors gave her a choice: get spinal fusion immediately, recover in a few months, but have permanent limited mobility, or be placed in a metal halo and body cast, wait nine months, and "see what happens." She chose the latter.

"People want to focus on whose fault it was," says Meyer. "It doesn't really matter. It happened. All I can do is think about what's next."

Meyer remained optimistic, so optimistic, in fact, that she wouldn't cancel her spring collection launch party scheduled for just 10 days after the accident.

"It's Jess through and through," says Dowling of Meyer's decision. Flown in from the Long Island hospital right before the event for 250 guests, Meyer mingled in a wheelchair, with flowers decorating her metal halo. "She was so amazingly cheerful," Dowling says.

Meyer says her spirit and her training in yoga meditation were as important to her recovery as physical therapy. At first she could only move her arms, so she stuck with fashion illustration and fabric selection. Then the body cast came off.

"I had to relearn everything: how I move, bend over, stitch," she says. The experience has given her a unique perspective and reaffirmed her commitment to her work.

"I think it's fun to explore everything and anything possible," Meyer says. "You never know when you might be hit by a truck."