Black Designer Jessica Perdomo Debuts Shoe Line J.J. Gray At NYFW

America’s Next Top Model’s Miss Jay Among Attendees To J.J Gray Trunk Show

Emerging designer Jessica Perdomo said she came across her idea to start a new line of footwear, J.J. Gray, by accident.

The Afro-Latina designer, who worked for Salvatore Ferragamo and Ralph Lauren before launching her own shoe line of oxfords and jodhpurs, said she was shopping while on vacation in Europe but wasn’t digging the footwear for sale.

“I was in the south of Spain and I was looking for shoes for myself, I didn’t see anything I liked,” she told us, “but I saw this incredible leather, and I told the family that runs the shop, ‘If I sketch something, could you make it?’ And when I got back to New York people just started complimenting me.”

Now, eight months later, the Dominican-American designer has racked up fans at Vogue and Footwear News to name a few.

Perdomo hosted her first trunk show at New York Fashion Week Sept. 15, drawing the likes of America’s Next Top Model Miss Jay and “Blood, Sweat & Heels” star Geneva Thomas.

Raised by Dominican immigrant grandparents in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York, Perdomo’s unisex leather line was inspired by Perdomo’s longtime love of men’s fashion.

“I’m a tomboy,” she said. “So I just wanted something that was feminine enough, but with the comfort of a man’s shoe.”