An eye for detail

Jessie Randall has what it takes to make the perfect accessory

Fashion designer Jessie Randall stands amongst her new spring line in her showroom in Soho, New York City. (Jennifer Taylor for the Boston Globe)

Jessie Randall was a teenager in Worcester when her fervor for footwear became clear. Her mother, Gail, recalls the time her daughter showed up with a "cheap, really ugly pair of shoes" she'd bought for the prom.

"They were black velvet pumps with gold metal trim. I looked at them and asked her how she could wear something like that. She said, 'I'm going to take this gold piece off.' " The budding designer went to work on the shoes with a letter opener and ended up with a pair of classic black heels.

"My eyes were opened to my daughter's ability to see far beyond what I could," her mother said.

Now 32, Jessie Randall has managed, in just a few short years, to open the eyes of the fashion world, too. Since launching her company, Loeffler Randall, in 2004, Randall has emerged as one of the industry's shining stars, beloved for her elegant yet edgy shoes, bags, and clothing. Last year, she took top honors for accessory design at the Council of Fashion Designers of America and scored a limited-edition Target collection. Now she's being feted by her hometown with "Chic and Modern: The Designs of Jessie Randall," a show at the Worcester Historical Museum.

"It's a little surreal," she admits.

Randall dreamed of designing, but after studying English and studio art at the University of Virginia, she moved to New York to take a job in advertising. It wasn't a good fit, but the detour did have one reward. She met her future husband, Brian Murphy, an art director at the firm who shared her Worcester ties. Several years later he proposed to her in the aisles of Spag's, the legendary discount store that once stood on Route 9.

It was Murphy who convinced Randall to try a life in fashion.

"He really encouraged me to go back to school, and he supported me while I worked towards my dream," said Randall, who enrolled in classes at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design.

In 2001, while still in school, Randall earned an assistantship with Katayone Adeli, famous for strong, classic designs. She spent two years immersed in the minutiae of design, learning to source a trim and fill out a cut ticket while refining her own clean-lined sensibilities. From there Randall moved on to Gap Inc., designing handbags for Banana Republic.

But self-employment was always the goal, so in 2004 Murphy and Randall launched Loeffler Randall (Loeffler is Randall's middle name), with Randall serving as creative director and Murphy handling business and marketing.

The duo decided to start with shoes. Working out of their garden apartment in Brooklyn, with her Chihuahua Romeo her constant companion, Randall conceived a line that was vintage-inspired but clean and modern.

"I wanted to design the kind of shoes I wanted to wear but could not find in the market," Randall said.

Loeffler Randall's inaugural collection, released for the 2005 fall/winter season, embodied Coco Chanel's declaration that luxury must be comfortable. The assemblage of boots, flats, and pumps was elegant and wearable, nixing over-the-top flourishes for clean lines and luxurious Italian leathers and more exotic materials like embossed python.

Consumers and vendors responded immediately. Celebs like Cameron Diaz were photographed in the Matilde oval-toed boot, and the line got snapped up by high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Louis Boston.

"It seemed so cool to me without being too fashion-y," Louis Boston owner Debi Greenberg said of the collection. "I'm not a store where my customers are driven by designers per se, so for them to find something new and unknown and cool, they jump on something like that."

On the (literal) heels of their success, Randall and Murphy expanded into bags in 2006. The Hattie signature satchel, a sumptuous deerskin concoction with braided handles and a refreshing lack of hardware, became a must-have.

Randall was getting affirmation in the form of sales and celebrity endorsements. Actresses like Diaz and Lindsay Lohan were frequently photographed wearing Loeffler Randall. But her peers were also taking notice. In 2006 Randall was nominated for a CFDA Swarovski Award for Accessory Design but lost to Devi Kroell. When Randall was nominated again the following year, she refused to put much stock in her chances - until she heard her name called.

"I was in total shock, and I got choked up," said Randall. "I was just extremely proud of what Brian and I and our team had accomplished." Randall had an additional reason to be excited: She was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time and gave birth two weeks later to twin boys, Casper and Liam, now 14 months old. (The appropriateness of having a matching pair of children is not lost on the shoe designer.)

Loeffler Randall's next step was to bring style to the masses, via retail giant Target. "I was excited to work with them, as I knew it would be huge exposure for our brand," Randall said. The affordable collection, Loeffler Randall for Target, released last December, offered relief to enthusiasts unable to swing the $200-$900 price tags of the Loeffler Randall brand.

So what do you do when you've mastered the art of accessorizing? In Randall's case you create the perfect ready-to-wear collection.

"Clothing was always part of the plan," said Randall, who favors a mix of masculine and feminine pieces from designers like Lanvin and Miu Miu. "The idea that I could design exactly what I want to have in my closet each season was just very exciting to me." Her first clothing collection debuted in fall 2007, and Randall again hit the mark with mod classics such as a two-tone bustier blouse and a glamorous winter coat with gold ball buttons and tiered sleeves.

For all her success, few Randall fans were aware of her local ties, so the Worcester Historical Museum decided to celebrate the hometown star. "Chic and Modern: The Designs of Jessie Randall" traces Randall's meteoric rise through words and - of course - shoes, including out-of-stock pieces from each of her collections.

"People just love the stuff," said exhibition coordinator Vanessa Bumpus, who spent three months curating the display. "I have no doubt in 10 years we'll be doing a full-on retrospective of her work - she's that talented."

Randall's weeks are both packed and varied. She typically spends three days a week in the Loeffler Randall offices in SoHo, working with her 13-person staff and their 350 accounts worldwide and trying to make progress on the latest project, a Loeffler Randall retail outlet. Otherwise, she can be found working out of the family's newly renovated Brooklyn brownstone, tending to her boys - "they are my entire life," she says - while nurturing a business she calls a "night and day operation."

"There is very little time for rest and relaxation," Randall admitted. "Brian and I haven't taken a vacation in almost two years."

Still, she's not complaining.

"I always loved art as a child, but I remember being disappointed a lot when the things I imagined in my mind turned out much different in real life," Randall said. "Now the things I design can be made almost exactly as I envision them."