JESS JEETLY APPOINTED MBE IN THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST

An Optician turned Fashion Entrepreneur, Jess Jeetly, Founder and Managing Director of Petite Clothing Brand JEETLY, a WEConnect International women-owned business, was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Jess’s reaction to being recognised in the Birthday Honours:

“I am truly delighted, humbled and shocked to have been appointed an MBE for Entrepreneurship. It’s a huge honour that brings with it the responsibility to empower more women and girls in the UK to step up and be the change they want to see. This recognition gives me the strength to grow the petite fashion sector and make the UK Fashion Industry the leader in this business.”

Having no fashion or business background, Jess was driven to start her business in 2013 after she was fed up of being told by her patients that she didn’t look old enough for her job. She realised it was her ill-fitting clothes that made her look like a girl dressed in mum’s clothing. When she couldn’t find clothes to fit her petite 5’1 frame, she decided to create a brand for short women like her.

Jeetly is the first clothing brand for women 5’3 and under that puts customers in control of what gets made, in an effort to give petite women a say in fashion. Petite customers send in design ideas. Jeetly creates samples and showcases them on the website. The designs are then voted IN or OUT of the next collection by petite women worldwide. Petite women submit comments on changes that could be made to the design, be it colour, cut or style. The individual with the winning suggestion that is put into production not only gets the finished garment FREE when it’s retailed, the garment is named after them.

Jeetly has been shortlisted for national awards for tech, customer service and innovation.