Creative/Art Direction & Styling by Natalie Schmidt; Photographed & Written by Anita Hodges

Lavena Lewis does a little dance every time something makes her happy. The dances turn seemingly small moments into a celebration-- the air conditioning on set finally starts functioning, the cheese in her sandwich is her favorite. It’s striking because her radiance is truly genuine-- it appears comprised of contagious joy. In conversation, it translates to a palpably profound gratitude and wisdom in her every remark.

It’s the same kind of passion that she breathes into her ever-evolving designs of the handcrafted leather bags and accessories Lewis makes for her collection, Vena Vena Handbags. At first touch, one immediately understands how much attention to detail has been put into material selection and design of her products. The leather goods are incredibly soft and supple, and they’re designed with a lot of forethought towards minimalist functionality.

Even the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and his wife, Amy Wakeland, are fans of Lewis’ collection. When Lewis tells AS IS Editorial that LA’s First Couple wants her to sell her wares at a private party at their home during the holidays, the dance that she breaks into is one of ecstasy and well earned pride.

Lewis brings that same earnestness to her family life. A devoted single mother, Lewis revealed in our interview how seriously she takes her sacrifices. There is nothing that will stand in her way to take care of her daughter’s well being. Keep reading below to hear Lewis explain how she advises her daughter to combat racial profiling in her own building of residence, and how Lewis endured sexual harassment in order to keep making the kind of money that sent her daughter to college.

These experiences represent the very real and difficult choices a woman must make throughout her life in order to protect and nurture that which she values. Lewis is a treasure trove of stories, from her time playing tennis with the man responsible for bringing crack to LA as an unknowing kid to running craft services on hip hop music videos as an adult. Her choices reflect the very fierce need for acceptance and independence with which every woman must grapple. AS IS Editorial exclusively reports, below.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up and how did that impact you?

Growing up in Cleveland, I always wanted to get away. It's a flyover state.

You felt that when you were living there?

I knew it, and I knew life was just testing me for something else, I knew it early on.

When was one of your first inklings of that?

I'd say when I was about maybe seven or eight; we were living at the time on the east side which was like here in LA the equivalent of South Central.

And I just remember visiting friends that lived on the west side and how they lived, and I remember thinking I'd rather live over where they were.

And you knew them through school?

Yeah, I knew them from school and went over to play at their houses.

Going over to play you're always exposed to something new and different. It’s either validating or invalidating to the way your family does things. It’s either aspirational or frightening.

It's true, it's real. Because I could tell my friends were more affluent by the way they lived, I just knew I wanted to live like that. We moved from the east side to the west side of Cleveland, so for middle school, I was on the west side. Loved it on the west side, it was less stressful of an environment.

What was stressful about the east side?

Just who you live around in that kind of urban area, or certain things you have to do, like you worry about crime, you worry about people following you home. Those kinds of things.

Did you realize a sense of relief from living on the west side that you didn’t have on the east side?

You would hear ambulances and police sirens more on the east side and hardly ever hear them on the west side. Not having that ambulance noise to drown you out was great. Yeah, not having to hear that.

We lived in a beautiful home on the west side, as opposed to the east side, our place was an old brick house, then we moved to a beautiful home.

Do you feel like you were immediately accepted on the west side because you were already hanging out with kids from that area, or did you feel like you may never be good enough, you're always gonna be chasing after fitting in?

Didn't feel it at all.

Cool, that's really cool.

I had all sorts of friends: Italians, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and African-Americans.

And you’re part Cuban, yes? How did your mom's Cubanness kind of weave its way into your everyday life growing up, at that time in the world?

Yeah, growing up it was different because my mother looked African-American, but she sounded Spanish, so she wasn't quite accepted in the African-American community, and the Spanish community would accept her, but it was just different. She’s Afro-Cuban.

So she's divided inside of herself in that neither group would fully accept her as she is.

Yeah, yeah, and it's like walking a tightrope.

Did you feel like you were Version 2.0 of your mother, because you're of two backgrounds as well?

I felt it. When you bring your African-American friends home and they hear your mother [speaking] with a Spanish accent, they're looking at her and looking at me and looking at each other, looking confused. They’d ask, “Is THAT your mama?” and I’d say, “Yeah, THAT’S my mama!” And then they would always talk about my hair. Growing up, my hair was wavy and long, which was totally not an African-American type of hair. Yeah, so they knew I was something different, just by my hair.

Just by looking at you.

Just by looking at me. And then when they ever came home, met my mother or heard my mother speak they knew [we were] something different.

Was it difficult to relate to them because they viewed you as different because of your background? For example, your other African-American friends might be talking about how all their moms are alike and then they discount how you relate because your mom was slightly different from theirs?

Pretty much that, it was like my story about my mom wouldn’t count because she presented as Spanish instead of African-American...Yeah, we got a lot of that because even though she was a light skinned black person, she was still black, but when she spoke, she was Spanish and therefore was considered “exotic.” My mother was stunning. The other African American women were afraid, you know, that my mother could take anybody's husband and run the block. They would pull their husbands away hard when my mother was around.

She was stunning. Perfect shape, long hair. Most women back in those days were wearing wigs.

And your mother didn’t have to. Her hair was real.

Stevie Wonder could see it was real!

That would put my mother at odds [with the neighborhood women]. A lot of women were afraid of my mother to come to their homes because they knew their husbands would want my mother. Yes. There was the hot factor.

How did it affect you to know that your mom is hot and getting looked at like that when you're a little girl?

Weird, not totally comfortable.

Was she also conscious of it by addressing it with you or was it just an unspoken thing?

Never said a word about her hotness. I'm not bringing it up with her!

It was the elephant in the room.

And I was riding that elephant bareback.

And do you think it was considered shameful to talk about sexuality, and acknowledge your mother as a sexual person, or was it simply because “ew, gross” that’s your mom?

“Ew, gross” that’s my mom. And my mom was a type of mom [with the philosophy that] you don't talk to grown people, a kid stays a kid. This was the Sixties. It was a different day. So I couldn’t run up to my mom and ask her [staring with big eyes] “Why?”

It would have been: Hashtag “You’re in trouble,” hashtag “You’re on punishment,” as my mom would say.

So you grew up in the Sixties, which has this whole reputation for being racy and wild with the Sexual Revolution. What was that period like in your life?

There was no Sexual Revolution in my life.

What was sex ed like for you growing up? Had you gotten to California yet?

Still in Ohio. Seventh grade.

Did sex ed happen in school or at home?

My mother never told me anything, so it was all in school.

Did you feel like it was accurate or informative?

I had nothing to compare it to. They separated boys and girls. I took it at face value. I just knew I was gonna be leaving Cleveland.

I knew my mom would take us out of there 'cause she moved us from the east side to the west side of Cleveland, all the way west to California.

So she went to the most west side of all of the west sides.

I knew my mom was more progressive too. And where she was at, she needed a more open type of community, she needed to be someplace where she could actually be free to be who she is. California was the place. It’s hard to fit in when you’re a round peg trying to fit into a square hole.

She sounds like she’s creative as well.

Very much so. She taught me how to sew.

What made you want to try it? Did you watch your mother and say, “I wanna do that,” or did it come from your mother saying, “Here, this is something you should learn.”

Yeah, definitely necessity. When she moved to California, my mother married a sheriff.

I was in 10th grade, and my mom said, “We’ll buy your school clothes, buy your shoes and purses but if you wanna play tennis, swim or whatever you want to do, you have to sew your own clothes.” So I learned how to sew my own tennis outfit and swimsuit. I even made little underwear to go with the tennis outfit. Then I started making prom dresses for other people. That’s why I started sewing.

What was the validating moment with sewing for you, was it when someone said, "Oh your tennis outfit is unbelievable. Where did you get that?”

I used to play tennis at Dorsey, where Venus and Serena Williams played, but before they played there. I used to play with a guy called Freeway Rick; you could Google this man. Apparently, he was one of the guys that was instrumental in bringing crack to California...But I didn't know that at the time. I never knew what he did for a living, the only reason I found out about what he did for a living was years later when I was watching 60 Minutes. He certainly didn't know that my dad was a cop.

Anyway Freeway Rick had the best rackets, and he only wanted to practice against me. But that was as far as our relationship went: tennis. Never got into his Mercedes, his hotels, his houses. He only wanted to play tennis with me because I was better than him, I challenged him. His whole thing was, “I gotta learn how to return your serve.” He had a hard time returning my serve.

He always had the finest tennis wear, he would wear Diadora, remember that from back in the day? I remember thinking, “I gotta come up with a tennis dress that is gonna knock his socks off.” I wanted to beat him, and I was gonna look good doing it.

So I told my mom, I said I need a pattern, a Butterick pattern. And then I just created a little underwear. Wore that tennis outfit and beat him to death.

What color was it?

White, pure white.

Beautiful. What was the silhouette?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Like a sheath. Straight skirt, nice big thick hem, it was the Seventies-- the little underwear had ruffles on them. I sewed a little ruffle on the back on the bum part. The dress was a scoop neck, sleeveless-- fit me to a T. When it’s made for you, it’s made for you.

Yeah, and I beat him in it. He was impressed that I actually had a tennis outfit 'cause I used to play just in my shorts, my tennis shoes and my Stevie Wonder t-shirt. I arrived that day, with that outfit on, and his eyes got huge, and then he was just shocked and ever since then I said, "You know what, I'm gonna sew a lot more.”

What did you realize about it-- that it was powerful?

It felt amazing because I already knew that I could beat him, but that on top of that I could present myself as powerfully as I felt athletically.

That’s such an empowering sensation! What other messages or ideals of feminism do you connect with the most?

I connect to discovering and using your voice. I believe women have to tap into that inner strength that we all have. Once you find your voice, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

That’s a really great universally applicable lesson we can use to challenge ourselves to be our most feminist selves in the world. How did you come to realize that developing inner strength was a reliable coping mechanism?

Being married and having my daughter. My husband was extremely handsome and so women wanted him everywhere he went. Literally on our wedding day a chick tried to give him her telephone number.

Oh my god, at your wedding?

It was at breakfast beforehand.

You’d have to be so strong to deal with that all the time.

I had to be! I was dealing with a sick mother and a sick father, my mother was in California, I was back east, and my marriage was failing. I realized I had to do something. At the time I used to work with the IRS, and I remember thinking I didn't wanna keep that job because it was just very unfulfilling. So I just tapped into what I wanted to do, and I figured marketing is something that I could go back to California and do.

The strength I tapped into happened when I realized that it wasn't about me any longer. Once I had my daughter, I realized there's someone who's looking up to me who's depending on me to make proper decisions. I saw things differently and I realized I had to show her how to be strong, because there's so much facing her being a woman and then on top of that being a black woman.

She's got super chocolate brown skin,  so I just knew she would have to deal with her skin color. And I know there's a price to pay for the skin that I'm in, so she would have to pay said price as well.

Do you feel like you were always really honest with her about that?

Absolutely, it's in our DNA.

How did you have that conversation?

We just recently expounded on that conversation last week.

She had a racial incident that happened the other day. She’s a student at UC Irvine and the town house where she lives is pretty much all Caucasian people, and the young man that she dates is a Latino engineering graduate student. When he comes to visit my daughter, the neighbors always assume he's a construction worker or plumber. Now mind you, he's never wearing a uniform; he’s a student, he wears khakis or suits. When he comes to her complex they still think he’s a utility worker, so her neighbors are staring and watching her, waiting for things to happen in essence, and they let her know--

We’re looking out for you, sweetheart.”

No, they’re trying to get dirt on her!

So, my daughter and I had a conversation, which was informed by our big time law enforcement family members. I just know at some point there might be a Backyard Becky who calls the police on her for being in the building and on the premises where she lives.

Yes, exactly!

I already know it's gonna happen. So to prepare for that, my law enforcement family members said what we need to do is mail her a letter in a small envelope she can keep with her. I make sure she has a screen shot of the letter as well, and she watered-marked the lease with the telephone number of the owner of the condo. It proves she belongs there when neighbors say, “You don't belong here, who are you?” Then she knows to say, "Is it okay if I reach into my bag and pull out a letter that my mother wrote for me to prove to you that I live here?”

The letter that I sent says: “I am Dominique’s mother. I wrote this letter because I figured at some point she will be interacting with law enforcement. This is a letter as proof that my daughter does live here. And then I included her address and she also has a copy of her lease with the watermark.

So she has double proof.

Yes. She also has a list of her rights she keeps in her wallet, every day, so that when something does happen, she's able to protect herself, right? Our law enforcement family members have told me how to handle this and how to tell her to conduct herself.

Our family of law enforcement members is taught not just active shooter training during family reunions, but all of it. How to get ourselves out of any situation.

I have to commend you a thousand times over for being that prepared, wise and forward thinking about what to do, because we don't live in a utopia where a Backyard Becky is not gonna happen. You’re keeping it real that a threat is right around the corner at any moment.

My daughter wears an afro, so that makes her a bit of a threat. Many will use the word “intimidating.”

That’s a dog-whistle term.

It's almost like what the word “articulate” used to mean. She [hears the] dog whistle, she knows what it means, she understands it.

How was the idea to protect herself with these documents initiated? Did it come from you stating, “This will inevitably happen. This is me looking out for you as your mother”?

Yeah, she's only been living there for a couple weeks and she's already had two incidents. Both times are when the man she’s seeing came over and they thought he was the trash man.

And so what was the problem with him being there?

[Interrogating] “Why are you here? Who are you here for?”

Like I said, she wears an afro. In Irvine, an afro is not exactly common...Yeah, we've been called out of our name [read: called the N word] in Irvine before. We've gone through some things. Last summer, we were walking from the campus to my daughter's apartment and four young men in a Jeep convertible were yelling “White Power!” across the street, and then they made a U-turn and drove towards us screaming “White Power!” and called us the N word. Me and my daughter when we were downtown at Union Station that happened too. I've had [many similar experiences] since Trump has been in office. I've had more racial problems now than I had all growing up in the past 55 years.

Do you feel that the way the world sees you is primarily based on your race, and therefore that’s where your experience of feminism and equality intersects?

 Yeah, well, because I can't hide. I deal with racism all the time, but I also have to arm my daughter in how to deal with it and how she has to realize that it's not her fault. Telling her “Now, you are who you are, the issue is [those] who have a problem.” That it’s important to ask ourselves: “Does the person have a mental illness, is it their shortcomings, their issues?” It’s all how you react to it, 'cause it's gonna happen. Your role is to try to temper it.

Do you find, because there is the generational difference between the world you grew up in and the world that your daughter grew up in, that it takes her a second for the reality to click?

As millennials we just kind of expect the world to be a better place when in reality it's not quite there yet. Does she suffer at all from that millennial attitude, perhaps thinking, “I don't want to have to carry around all these documents in my wallet all of the time”?

The issue of race didn't really touch her much until she got to college. Once she got to Orange County, then it became clear: everything from racism to the homelessness in that city is more pronounced. When I go to visit I’m like, “Where are all the homeless people?” and she goes, "Oh they pick them up, and they take them to Santa Ana.” That’s the kind of place she lives now, where the separation of people based on race and class is more in her face.

She understands white privilege. She's president of her sorority and she is the only black person in the sorority. So she's always been like a boss, so for her it's natural. She's always been that way, a charismatic leader. She always gotten good grades, made the Dean’s List, she got the Obama Presidential Leadership Award. She's always been ahead, but part of the reason why she is ahead is because we have frank conversations about whatever, be it boys, be it our sexuality or racism.

Have you had that full circle moment where she says, “Thanks for arming me with a dose of reality, mom?”

Yeah!

Because it's coming in handy all of the time.

She's been able to teach her sorority sisters because they deal with it too because they’re Latinas. They see what she is learning in the real world and see what real practical situations are, and she's able to share that with them.

It’s a beautiful thing to figure it out all together.

But it took time. It didn't affect her until she got to Orange County. Then she realized, “I could get picked up [by the police] because of racism. Now I gotta deal with this.” She couldn't hide any longer.

And because you know that she's already prepared to deal with that stuff happening, you don’t have to worry any extra about her being in Irvine. She understands it, she too says, “OK, it happens.”

It doesn't really phase me because first of all: I believe in God, I believe He's in charge. So whatever comes our way, as long as she's armed with the truth and she believes it, she's gonna be fine. That's how I view it. Yeah, I can't really waste a lot of time on worrying about stuff like that because if I'm worrying about that, I'm not believing in God and I do believe in God. I'm not gonna worry. I choose to believe versus worry.

Faith matters in that way.

It matters because when something comes my way, I have to realize that it's coming my way for a purpose. I couldn't tell you how many times bad stuff has come my way and it ends up being a good thing.

I think that speaks toward the story of a woman's life: to use experiences that hold us down as motivation to turn bad into good, to learn lessons through experience; what’s an example of that in your life?

When I was married. The idea of being married was a great thing, until it wasn’t.

How long did the marriage last?

About 20 minutes? It was over before it began, and that's one way of putting it politely, and it was really, really quick. He just changed, he was one person once we were dating and then we got married and suddenly I became property.

Having to do things on my own was really negative at first, thinking, “Man, I'm gonna be a single parent, not gonna be married.” We were buying a second property for income, and I remember saying, “I gotta withdraw my half because I'm not gonna be around...so you can just do this on your own.”

And I remember feeling really bad thinking, "This is horrible and I have to raise my daughter by myself.” I thought it was a bad thing but God knows, it turned out to be the best thing ever, because it allowed me to form a relationship with my daughter that was unbreakable.

I couldn't tell you how many times people have said when they are around us, “You guys are so cute together” or “You guys really care, huh?” All of her friends say, “I wish my mom was like your mom,” and then my go-to response is, “Don't let your mama hear you say that.”

My advice for them is: "All you gotta do if you want your mama to be like me is to go ahead reach out to your mom and try to do special things.” Take your mom to a Korean spa, do something that your mom likes and start doing more of that. And spend more and more time together. You gotta put the time in.

So for me getting divorced was the worst; I felt like a failure. And it turned out for the best.

Does your daughter have a relationship with her father?

Oh yeah, he takes her travelling every summer, that’s their thing. Now she's in college, not so much, so he comes at Christmas time, and we all spend time together as a family at Christmas.

So yeah, it worked out. So that was an example of something that was bad, that turned out to be something good.

In what parts of your life do you feel that you experience the expression of your intersectionality as a cisgendered/straight/black/business owning woman?

Business is the equalizer. Of course, I haven’t been doing it as long as others, but in terms of adversity, I deal with less prejudice being a businesswoman than any [other of my intersections].

I'm a member of a women's organization for female business owners. I found that when I talked with other business women, they didn’t really see me [by my] color. And we deal with some of the same things whether she is Caucasian, Puerto Rican or whatever-- we all deal with that same glass ceiling. Some of them are in tech, and they deal a lot with [preferential treatment towards] guys. [For example] on a job, a guy’s gonna ask for more money, whereas she’ll ask for less but he’ll still get hired.

I deal with that as well in my handbag business. I find other [male designers] will ask three, four, five hundred for their handbags. And I'm only asking for two, right? This is not fair.

What is that a metaphor about-- Is that a picture of your own worth?

Like Drake says, "Know your worth.” Because if you don't know your worth, whomever you're doing business with, nine times out of ten they will try to take advantage of you. If you think this item should be priced at 100, then you need to price it at 300, and do your research to see what three will get you [versus] what you're offering, and if it's comparable to that. Then, of course, you'll see you’re on the right track.

 So, I would say being a female business owner is where feminism best intersects me.

You’ve got me really thinking about knowing our worth. How do we as women reprogram ourselves, and raise the next generation, to know our worths?

If you see a job that's paying 10 an hour, and you see a job that’s paying 40, go for the 40! And if you don't have the skills for that 40 dollars an hour job, guess what? You’re gonna learn it.

I deprogrammed my daughter. So my advice is: aim high.

Speaking on the subject of knowing one’s worth, how do you feel about interacting with men and doing it with dignity in the Me Too era?

I would say, proceed with caution. If a guy is trying to too hard to impress me, I realize that is not the man for me. I don't believe in online or speed dating, I just believe in organically meeting.

Why don't you believe in contemporary forms of dating?

For me, I just don't have the time to sit around and try to pick a guy based on one picture and a few blurbs. I'm more apt to get to know a guy [first if] I meet him at a Laker game, or at Home Depot or on the train. I think I can get a better feel for who he is as opposed to what he's trying to portray. I'd rather not waste my time or his. It's not for me.

You seem like you would read body language really well.

I’ll give you a prime example of that. If I am on a Metrolink train and I'm sitting around two guys, one guy is on the phone, looking at it, not even looking up and another guy’s reading a book -- the guy on the phone, slide it left as they say! The guy with the book is the interesting one to me...First of all, I'm gonna [peek at] what he's reading and based upon that I can kind of gauge a little bit, and if I see him reading something that I wanna read, or something that I've read, that's a point of interest and I'm more apt to talk to that guy.

And when you see an opening, you’re going to go for it.

I prefer to meet a guy at a sporting event. It’s a different type of man that goes to a sporting event, and it's something that I did in my 20s. I actually dated a Laker, I won’t say who he is. My sister and I, we went to every Laker game, but we never paid for a ticket. We got in for free 100 percent of the time for five years.

This is the time period where you guys had your music video catering business.

We had catering, and then we used to have yacht parties in the marina. Charged people a crazy amount of money. We’d have a free bar. The people from those parties still remember me, to this very day, for the yacht parties. It’s pretty hilarious, because it was so long ago.

Where do you get confidence from in your life, do you feel like you've just always had that?

It's just part of my life. But I'm also willing to stand in front of the firing line too, especially when something feels right.

What does loyalty mean to you?

Honestly, being able to stand by me. Just being someone that knows where I'm coming from, understanding and just like, "You know what, I'm gonna be on your team because I realize what you've been through, and it means something, and I respect that.”

It’s recognition and acceptance.

It’s hard to allow just anyone into my life. It's a trust that’s not a given, it's something that’s earned. Yeah, and even at that, there's no guarantee.

Talk to me about what minimalism means to you, the importance of it and why it's so important for you to run with that aesthetic? What are you attracted to about it?

I guess I've always been attracted to it in a way, I'm not really into the bedazzled over the top type things. I'm a basic meat and potatoes kind of chick, I’ve always kind of been that way growing up.

If we looked back at photos, at little Lavena-- is she in a simple outfit but she's making it work and look super chic?

Oh, well, it was the Eighties, and Lavena was into Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Oh, hell yes, that's a really good time to be into that, so nobody's gonna blame you.

I’ve always been into fashion, it’s always been my thing. Sewing has always been my thing. And I had to figure out a way to put the fashion and minimalism together, and make it work.

So initially I started making clothes that looked like Rick Owens. I used clean, big, boxy, simple silhouettes...I used bamboo fabric, organic cotton.

Like your tennis sheath, early on it showed you how to be minimal but with an impact, a little flair.

Yeah, for me, my minimalist vibe, I guess, if you will, is that I like the idea of something minimal but I also like it being practical, something [my buyers] can use. That's why in my bags I put cup holders so you can put your flask in there. I make sure I put two pockets, so you can put your sunglasses in one and put your phone in the other.

We also make an iPad pocket or computer sleeve inside that’s padded, so you can drop it in and take your work with you, but on the outside it looks like something from Madewell or Everlane, which are some of my favorites.

I’m a fan of Helmut Lang, I like Maison Martin Margiela. So I have a little [influence] of both, a little. I like Theory, you know, so I have my certain little likes, but to me minimalist with a purpose is more me.

I like that.

Because the purpose is making life easier.

I want you to carry that bag and you don't have to drop your water bottle where it's rolling around the bottom of your purse getting on your nerves. What if the cap is not on properly? The cap can not be on, and it still won’t spill on your purse or on some electronic whatever you got in there.

Who is your target demographic, what's the story of the Vena Vena Handbags woman?

I’m thinking about professionals as well as students, because a lot of times students don't have a lot of time to change purses every 15 minutes, so that's why I kind of like to stick to the neutrals, just a cream colored leather, black-brown as well as pop of colors too. I like the idea that students can drop their computer, books, water bottle and phone in the bag, so that way the things they need the most are right there at the ready.

The professional woman might change her purse a few times that day-- now I know she's gonna want maybe a purple bag, a red bag. Those are really popular right now. For her, I realized that she might want this in black, tan, cream and then a pop of color.

I'm designing it for her as a woman on the go-- where she could just open it up, with no zipper, and drop stuff in there and go because in the morning she's gotta get the kids ready, her husband is getting on her nerves and she needs to get out of the house.

As women, it’s not just a job we have, we have to take care of the home. And it's a lot.

And your Vena Vena handbag is going to facilitate accomplishing all of that.

Because I can to dump everything in that sucker and look good in it. And then when you go back to look for your stuff, you know exactly where it is, because time is money. It’s saving you those microseconds that can trigger stress and anxiety just from looking through your own bag.

Yeah, exactly, and it helps people use the organizational tool of everything having its place and inside of that place, everything has its place even more.

Your affection for minimalism shines through your products, and you definitely have a minimalist aesthetic in your own personal style. Are you consciously subverting the stereotype of black women?

I don’t mean to subvert it, I'm doing it because of my love of fashion. It’s not a conscious subversion. But I do understand why African-American women do wanna go over the top and do more than the normal, wear the make-up and the nails.

It’s to create an armor against an unsupportive world.

It’s so much more than that. It’s to feel equal in the world, to present and feel equal.

It’s like how the Australian newspaper, the Daily Sun, did a cartoon character of Serena Williams. They showed her as super overweight, they made her three or four times bigger than she is, and they made her angry where she was jumping up and down on her racket. They showed Naomi Osaka as being blond, which she was not, and light skinned when she was almost the same color as Serena, but they show her calmly talking to the referee.

This is how the world sees African-American women, and the darker you are, the more they think you’re militant, angry and have less class. They see you as not as intelligent, and all those things play a part.

It’s beyond unfair because I can't change these parts of who I am.

It continues the reality that a black woman's self-expression is resisted.

Yeah, because that's how they see us.

So, it's not even just about subversion, it’s about overtly engaging in style for the sake of societal acceptance.

It is and sometimes you don't mind playing the game because you realize that sometimes you have to let people know where you're coming from, and sometimes I can't waste my brain space. My brain is better put to use in creating design. Like how Zuckerberg wears a uniform so he doesn’t have to use his brain to think about what to wear. I don’t always want to use my brain to subvert stereotypes.

It’s a bandwidth issue. So another reason why you love minimalism is because it helps you to be uniform.

It does help me to be uniform. And I realize it can blend in with anything, and it doesn't matter what chick is carrying my bags-- it can be a trans chick, an Asian chick, she can be a school chick, she can be a business chick.

I realized I need to play to a broader audience, and that's another reason why I don't put “Lavena” on my handbags, I put Vena Vena so that it feels more universal and [my buyers] can project themselves into the minimalist designs.

Even the mayor’s wife carries my bag. She invited me to sell my products at their home during the holidays. Garcetti referred to me as a handbag manufacturer, and that made my day.

That relationship proves that Garcetti is a friend to small business owners, which is completely different than what we are getting out of the White House these days.

The Trump administration has inspired some real ugliness in our country right now.

What affects you most about the ugliness of the Trump administration? What is an issue that you are galvanized by now that was just as important to you when you were growing up; what is a new issue that charges you up today, and how can women process their experiences?

It’s the dog whistle. He's always talking to the base, and the base are white supremacists. How [Heather Heyer] was killed, and then he said there were good people on both sides. I think about how I can't really say that he's bringing racism back, it never left, but [the right] kind of found a better way to [practice it]. They are more passive aggressive, in the ways my daughter and I have discussed, where now it's more overt than before, when they'd be a little bit more secretive about it.

Like if they're having an office party, “We’re gonna invite you, you and you, definitely not you, and you over there can forget it.” And so now it’s, “We’re gonna have an office party, but I’m going to give you two the late shift, that way you don’t come.”

So it's a little bit more different, but it's also more overt now. Like I said, I've been called out of my name [read: called the N word] and that didn't happen for a span of decades and now it's back again. People that are racist are feeling comfortable to call me out of my name, to call me names because they realize the president is doing it too; the president is giving them permission to do it.

And just the fact that it feels like he's getting away with it! But I know he's not-- if you give him enough rope he'll hang himself.

Do you feel like you have had to put your wall up again? Was it ever down, and then you’ve had to put it back up?

Yes, and now it’s up and it’s bulletproof. Like I said, there’s a price to pay for the skin that I’m in.

I’m willing to pay that price because it's who I am. I wouldn't wanna be anything else. I was meant to be this person to go through whatever I'm going to go through because I'm gonna make it better for the next person, and right now, the next person is my daughter. And she's gonna make it better for the next generation, and so on.

My shoulders are strong. I can handle it. My daughter is even stronger. And she's learning to find her way. I’ve got to face it head on, because I owe it to my daughter. She didn’t ask to be brought here.

How do your experiences in your life with hardship and challenge inspire your work and a real message that you want to convey?

I find people expect me to give less, but I like to underpromise and overdeliver. I just like to see the look of shock on their faces, when they say, “Did you really do this?” It's rewarding in many ways.

What does that reward feel like?

Like losing weight! It feels good. Then it makes me feel like I'm on the right track, it kind of gives me energy, if you will, to level up.

Are you aware that you represent an independence that a lot of women are not privileged to have? How does that affect your work?

I’m grateful. I realize that I am lucky. There's been many times where I've seen women around me not have certain opportunities that I have because I have my business. They're trying to find a job, like a security job or whatever, whatever it is.

And I realized I don't have to look in that direction, because I’m looking towards putting my product in another store or somebody's website. I wanna be the boss.

When did you make that decision for yourself to be your own boss?

I used to work for a marketing firm, the pay was stellar and I did accounting. I realized I had power in that job when, instead of arriving at seven, I said, “I'm not getting there till nine. And I want more money.” The person in my position before me made twice as much as I was, and terrorized the office. They gave me less money, and I did a better job. I got them major clients, like Fortune 25 clients.

And my boss didn't appreciate me, so I said to myself, “Okay, since they do take me for granted, let me just cut down my time here and ask for stupid stuff.” So first it was [arrival time], then I said, “If you want me to stay until one thirty, then you can cater my lunch every day.”

So when I got my boss to cater my lunch everyday, he then saw me as strong and powerful-- then the guy starts sexually harassing me. My daughter had just started college, so I was thinking about how I have to keep my kid in college! I had to make a choice: if I have to run around that desk, I have legs, I can run, and I’m gonna keep running and put my money away so when the other shoe drops with this boss, I’ll be able to keep living.

The shoe drop happened when I found out he was bilking a client’s money, which was a federal crime. He wanted me to engage in that fraud, and I said, “This has my name on it, I’m not having it.”

He said, "Well if you don't, I'm gonna fire you.” And so, after that I decided I'm never gonna have a boss again. And now I’m on my own.

Do you feel that, this many years later, you’re satisfied with the way it all worked out?

At first I was a little mad, I was angry for about three months because I was living a lavish lifestyle that I then simplified to make savings. And then that's when I said, "You know what, I can sew. I can make bags.” I just took a chunk of my savings and bought leather. I started with wallets, I started with a credit card wallet, and gave them away to my family and friends. I asked, “Tell me, how does it work for you, what do I need to do to improve it?” They gave me the feedback, I improved the product and then [I expanded] to clutches and tote bags.

I recently made a bucket bag. My designs are changing.

Yeah, you're evolving. It's because you invested in yourself. You chose you first--

--rather than being harassed. And rather than him having me break the law--

No person is worth that much.

[Re: Lavena’s former boss] “I'm dropping you for me.”  That job afforded me time to be the type of mom who could be there for everything. So it really was a great way of raising my daughter after all. Yes, so it was the best choice for me at the time. And my daughter loves that I’m my own boss now.

I would never be where I am today if it wasn't for that experience.

Where do you find hope and inspiration in your life to express your sense of power?

My daughter and her sorority sisters inspire me. One of her sorority sisters has a child, and at the university, she lives in a building that is exclusively for families on campus. She is still graduating with honors.

I find my power comes from being a mother. I put a lot of energy into raising my daughter mindfully, and I find hope and inspiration when I meet other like-minded parents. I can tell which of my daughter’s sorority sisters were nurtured into being poised and intelligent. When you meet their parents, it’s especially obvious.

As parent, it's almost like we want to meet each other 'cause we knew the kids were a certain way already and we knew it was a reflection of their generous parenting.

A child is truly a reflection of the support they receive from their parents.

A child equates love with time. They spell love: T-I-M-E.

That’s incredibly true and well said.

Do you have anything to add to our conversation about who or what influences you?

I like to follow the trends a little bit...just a little bit, and I like to create pieces that are longer-lasting. Like, a cool leather bag that when it gets worn down later on down the line you still wanna carry it.

What are your goals, professionally, and what personal gain do you hope it brings you?

I just wanna continue making handbags and I wanna expand globally, and bring my family prosperity and financial freedom.

What does financial freedom mean to you?

Having a certain amount of base income, so that way I could live a certain lifestyle and my daughter can live a certain lifestyle. My sister's already living a certain lifestyle, but I have other sisters in our family. One is retired, she’s 70. She's kind of sick so it'd be nice to do some special things for her.

I have another sister who is 67 and she still drives a bus in Texas. She's got a son who has a heart problem and has two young kids, so she's just gonna keep working because she realizes that someday she might have to take care of his kids.

So the idea is to ease the burdens of your loved ones.

Yeah, and to have, you know, a little passive income here and there, and to have the freedom to just go travel.

 And I would be interested to up my benevolence in life, because being a philanthropist is the ultimate goal. So in order to do that, I have to be able to secure my own life, make sure my daughter's good, make sure my family is good, and then I can do the philanthropy thing.

 Do you ever wake up and and think, “I don’t feel like working right now.”

Never. First of all, if you don’t use it, you lose it. I learned that from my dad. You have to be purposeful, mindful and you need to have work. There’s a study that proves that people who work with a purpose live longer. I’ll be a healthier person because of my work and my purpose.

Follow @venavenahandbags on Instagram

 Shop Vena Vena Handbags at:

MADE Cafe & Boutique, located at 325 S. Los Angeles Street 90013

www.amazon.com starting October 2018, www.freeform.org, and www.wonderfulthings.com starting November 2018

Special thanks to Matthew at The Room DTLA via Peerspace