Justina Blakeney is an American designer, artist, interior designer, writer, and speaker who is well-known by the bright colorful and vibrant bohemian style. She founded a houseware and home decoration brand ''Jungalow''. Her first book, ''The New Bohemians: Cool and Collected Homes,'' was a

New York Times bestseller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

Early life and education

Blakeney grew up in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. Her mother is of Eastern European Jewish descent and her father is of African-American and Native American descent, as well as Irish and French. Blakeney was raised Jewish and her father was a

convert to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. " ...

. Her mother's family were Jewish immigrants to New Jersey at the turn of the century. Her family celebrated the Jewish holidays, including Hanukkah and Passover, and did not celebrate Christmas like some other secular Jewish families they knew. She states that this multi-ethnic background and California upbringing influenced her bohemian aesthetic. She graduated from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

in 2001 with a B.A. in World Arts and Cultures. In her junior year of university, she went to Italy to study fashion and communication. The experience in Italy made her move back to Italy after graduation, and enrolled in

Polimoda Ente per le Arti applicate alla Moda e al Costume abbreviated as Polimoda is a private fashion school in Florence, capital of Tuscany, Italy. The school was originally founded by Shirley Goodman, the former Executive Vice President Emeritus at F ...

-a fashion school.

Career

Blakeney named her design and lifestyle

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

"Jungalow," a combination of jungle and bungalow. Using the blog and

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

as platforms, Blakeney created a collection of shaggy rugs for Loloi, a wallpaper collection with boutique firm Hygge & West, the Justina Blakeney Home collection with

Anthropologie Anthropologie is an American clothing retailer with approximately 200 stores across the U.S., Canada, and the UK that offers an assortment of clothing, jewelry, home furniture, decoration, beauty products, and gifts. Anthropologie is part of ...

, a bedding line at

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

, and a home fabrics collection with Calico Corners stores. She has a line at Living Spaces, and a collection of bedding, storage, lighting, and small gifts for

Pottery Barn Kids Pottery Barn is an American upscale home furnishing store chain and e-commerce company, with retail stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. The company is head ...

. Her designs for fashion retailer

Moda Operandi Founded in 2010 by Lauren Santo Domingo and Áslaug Magnúsdóttir, Moda Operandi is an online luxury fashion retailer that allows customers to preorder looks directly from designers, immediately after their runway show. The concept, which was con ...

, including portraits of fashion icons such as Grace Jones, were featured in

Vogue Magazine ''Vogue'' is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers many topics, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Based at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, ''Vogu ...

Books

Her first book, ''The New Bohemians: Cool and Collected Homes'' book, was released in 2015. ''The New Bohemians: Come Home to Good Vibes,'' was released in October 2017. They are

coffee table book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire convers ...

s with design photos featuring residences, and includes resources such as houseplant guides and project instructions.

Speaking

* Alt Summit * Makers Summit * AIGA Design Conference: Business + Entrepreneurship * Design Bloggers Conference * WITHIT * Pinterests' Knit Con * Creative Mornings

Personal life

Blakeney lives with her husband and daughter in a 1926 bungalow located in the Frogtown neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Her husband is an atheist born to an Eastern European Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. Her home was featured in interior decorating magazine

House Beautiful ''House Beautiful'' is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who began publishing it in 1934. It is the oldest still-publi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakeney, Justina Living people African-American Jews Writers from Los Angeles Writers from Berkeley, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni American Ashkenazi Jews 21st-century American women writers African-American designers African-American women artists American textile designers 1979 births 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women