Bring It Home: How a luxury handbag designer curates her home

Jessie Wong picks up the phone from a tent, where she is eating gingernuts for breakfast because the rain is too heavy to venture outside. The 27-year-old founder of luxury bag brand Yu Mei is holidaying with her friends in Hahei.

After the holidays she will be returning to her first home, which she bought with partner Jack Fisher, just before Christmas. Their house is a 1904 character villa that sits on a sheltered hill between Oriental Bay and Roseneath, a short 1.3km walk down the waterfront to Wong’s studio.

It has been divided into four one-bedroom units. Wong and Fisher occupy one and rent out the others, but could eventually convert the villa back into a single dwelling.

JESSIE WONG: I had a list in mind for a dream first house – something with character and a view, sunshine and central location. I didn’t think we were going to get any of those things.

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The first thing I did when we moved in was pull up the carpet to find and polish the original matai floor. Whoever put the carpet down must have thought that someone might want to restore it one day because it was only attached around the perimeter.

We painted the walls too, but haven't done more.The advice that I was given when we bought the house was to wait at least six months before renovating to see how we use the space.

My interior style is a collection of things that are designed or inspired by someone I know, or that have the material qualities that I appreciate.

I love regenerative materials like organic wools and cottons, so there are a lot of Tekla blankets and handmade vases around.

The three works behind me (from left to right) are by Matt Arbuckle, Ch’lita Collins, and Vishmi Helaratne. The photo by Ch’lita is a favourite piece of mine, it was the artist’s proof and a gift from her. Ch’lita has photographed for Yu Mei in the past and this piece is from her first show.

I first saw the painting by Alan Ibell, which hangs above my head, in the Sanderson Gallery in Newmarket when I was a student. I took a photo and years later messaged Alan to see if he still had it.

All of my art is by burgeoning NZ artists around my age. We also have a piece by Nikau Hindin that is currently being framed. I love supporting my peers and think that their work speaks to our place and moment in time.

I have a second piece by Matt Arbuckle in our bedroom that is sort of like watching clouds, you see little shapes in it. The colours make me really happy. I see an old Chinese couple playing mahjong.

I love the irregularity of handmade objects.

When we were kids, my mum took us to the Venetian island of Murano, where most Venetian glass has been made since the 13th century. I find the process fascinating.

Luke Jacomb, of Auckland studio Lukeke, puts crushed newspaper into a bigger vessel to make the shape, and then blows the glass into the paper surroundings to give it that crinkled look. Everything has to go absolutely right in a couple of seconds.

One of his vases sits on our kitchen table, which was the first piece of furniture that my mum and dad bought together. The chairs came from a Simon James archive sale.

We didn’t really have any furniture before we moved.

We’ve got a rule for homewares that we save up to buy the one thing that we really want, rather than getting a substitute that will later be replaced.

But I don’t think you always need a reason to buy a pair of shoes. This velvet pair from The Row I bought to take me through all the Christmas and New Year’s seasonal parties. They’re a lot of fun.

What we had built up for the house before we moved in was all our plates and mugs and cutlery. We would drive up to see Jack’s grandparents in Woodville and on the way back go past a Paul Melser pottery studio. We built up a full set over two years just getting bits at a time.

Whenever I get a book recommendation, I go out and buy it.

There’s a lot of Joan Didion in the stack at the moment, and quite a lot of business stories. I just read one called Creative Inc. about the founding of Pixar. Jack has a lot of Te Papa press books because that is where he works, as well as te reo and gardening.