By Whitney Teal
Chance Jackson will probably grow tired of hearing phrases like cowboy fashion and Texan-inspired before the fashion industry gets through with the young accessories designer. But we assume that day has not arrived yet, so we'll go ahead and say it: Jackson's handmade collection of bags is 100 percent Texas, from the industrial-sized girths (everything's bigger in you know where) to the hides and skin materials he uses.
The handbags and clutches are part of Carnce (pronounced Sarnce, sort of like sauce with an r-n sound) and some would be quite at home hanging on the wall of a Central Texas sportsman, if they hadn't first been shaped into a trendy, oversized clutch or mini- messenger bag.
Jackson prefers to work with the so-called cowboy materials (fyi: we were the ones that so-called them that) because he enjoys "the quality of making a leather bag," he said. "I've tried using cloth and other things like that and I'm just not satisfied with it. I don't know why; I guess I'm high-maintenance." High-maintenance, maybe, but Carnce's collection is still decidedly utilitarian, from the bright, silver hardware to the black tubing displayed over the front of some bags.
So, when we spoke with Jackson, we weren't at all surprised to hear his slow, measured Texan drawl. Jackson was born in the Metroplex, but raised over 100 miles north in Wichita Falls. He began delving into fashion as a high school student.
"I didn't even think I wanted to do fashion, but I started making watchbands in high school and everyone loved them," Jackson told La Mode. "I started because I'd always loved watches and I had a watch face for a watch I'd always loved but the strap broke on it." Jackson's grandmother, an art teacher, lent him some leather that she kept around for her class projects and he was on his way.
His hobby turned into a passion that the budding designer didn't even know he had. After high school, Jackson went to El Centro College in Dallas before moving to New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). He learned what he needed to from the prestigious fashion school that counts Calvin Klein and Michael Kors among its alums, but soon Jackson was headed back to his home state.
"Yeah, I lived in New York for awhile but, I always knew I wanted to start my own company; that's the reason I just moved back to Texas," Jackson explained. "I always knew what my long-term goals were and I didn't think starting a company in New York would be very smart of me, so I just moved back here."
Soon after, Carnce was officially born. Like you're probably wondering, we had no idea how to pronounce the company name, let alone what the ultra-original moniker meant. It turns out that he really had little to do with it.
"My dad's been calling me that since I was little," Jackson told us. "I always knew the name of the company, the name, you probably don't know how to pronounce it." Uhh, yeah, we didn't.
"A lot of people say 'karnce,' the reason I called it Carnce is because all of my brothers and sisters names start with a C, so I wanted to keep it a C, so that's why I put the little French accent under the first letter," Jackson said.
Besides his father and grandmother's influence over his career, Jackson's wife, Amber, is now an integral part of his professional life. "She does all the marketing for me," Jackson told us happily. "Actually, she was my high school sweetheart and we've been married about five years now." Knowingly or not, Amber was signing up not only for marriage, but also for fashion. "I just sort of dragged her into the company, even if she didn't want to," Jackson said with a devilish laugh.
But life managing Jackson's burgeoning career can't be a bad job at all; the maturing talent has had a slew of good fortune lately. He was nominated for Texas' Next Top Designer, not once but twice. The first time he didn't win but heard that he did pretty well (the competition doesn't rank the runners up). When we spoke to him, Jackson was prepping for a second interview with the contest.
He's also been booked to do lots of fashion shows, including the popular Pin Show, a runway for emerging talent, and has gotten his wares into both Dallas' Revolving Door boutique and a store called Pinup Culture in Wichita Falls.
For now, young Jackson's focused on building his brand and creating top-notch products, which, for him, are bags that are out-of-this-world original, fierce yet very wearable. And to that we say: “ain’t nothing wrong with that!”
