After graduating from high school in El Paso, Leigh moved to the West coast to attend the University of San Diego, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Business while concurrently working at Saks Fifth Avenue. She then moved to Los Angeles briefly before her path redirected her to the fashion capital of the world, New York City. While in NYC, Leigh headed the Chloe Boutique at Bergdorf Goodman, a position she looks back on fondly for the challenges met and insight gained.
Leigh's experience in the fashion industry and her background in enameling prompted a move back to Austin, Texas, in 2005 where she aspired to start her own line of hand-crafted accessories in a city that prides itself on supporting local, small businesses. Following in her mother's footsteps, Leigh's aspirations quickly became a reality when she launched her own brand, Leighelena - a combination of her first and middle name. Her collections showcase the enameling process, which in a true display of cyclicality, her mother now helps her to produce, along with work in leather and exotic skins.
Each individual enamel piece, which ranges in form from pendants to bracelets to rings that have removable and interchangeable magnetic Crowns, all go through multiple firings, rendering their coloration as unique as their potential wearers. Guided by both skill and intuition, Leigh applies vibrant powders and glass fragments to a copper base that will then be put in a kiln nearing 1600 degrees. The process, Leigh says, can be very organic and always fun. For an even more personal touch and as an homage to the influence her family has had on her work, Leigh places a stamp that started with her Grandfather's vintage collection on the back of each enamel piece.
Just as impressive as her enamel work, Leigh's line of leather and exotic skin buckle bracelets come in a wide array of the finest Italian leathers as well as exotic skins such as stingray, anaconda, python, lizard, carp, and crocodile from around the world. The hardware in the Leighelena line is a proprietary design as well, adding a sense of chic modernity and an architectural aesthetic to the naturalism of the skins.
As Leigh's passion and experience for hand-crafting jewelry grew, so did her business, with Leighelena products now being sold out of more than 600 retailers across the United States, and abroad. Leighelena has two Austin-based storefronts: one in East Austin and the flagship location on the famed South Congress strip.
So why Austin? The answer to that question is easy - I put together a special page to tell you why I love Austin:
If you visit the Leighelena South Congress Store
- or our East Austin Studio, be on the lookout for
our ace employee Charlie.
I also invite you to visit my SoCo Austin Shop by clicking here
