Jill Homiak ’07, has combined a love of fashion with a business background. What sets her apart from other stylish workingwomen? A commitment to her business’s tag line “Define your presence,” about being confident in who you are, and a play on words, as her new professional top defines the female figure.
Jill created Presenza with the curvy professional woman in mind. She broke into the business world after graduating from F&M with a BA in Business, Organizations, and Society (BOS) with a focus on finance and marketing, and found that the products designed for buxom figures were “limited and not very feminine.” Homiak designed a line of wrap tops for busty women, noting “the average cup size has gone up in the last decade” and while there is no shortage of lingerie for big-breasted women, there is not much in the professional clothing industry that addresses the issue.
“Sex sells, period. From my perspective, it’s a balance between selling something that looks good on people, but also selling the practicality.”
The wrap top addresses just that. Seams hit at the smallest part of the waist, shearing in the back creates a slimming effect, and the top hits at the bottom half of the tush. The Presenza line is composed of “timeless and classic pieces that also [define] the female form”, which Jill plans on expanding to include wrap dresses, jackets, and other styles designed for an hourglass shape.
While Jill has no formal fashion or design background, her experience stems from seeing a market need and her own personal experience. Her unique approach to business is largely a reflection of F&M’s liberal arts education. “Having the foundation of a liberal arts education paired with the hard skills of a BOS major allowed me to feel comfortable in pursuing entrepreneurship,” she says.
For graduating seniors, especially those majoring in Business, Jill’s post-grad life experience offers an optimistic outlook for translating liberal arts to the professional world. Most encouraging of all is Jill’s appreciation for F&M.
“I miss being surrounded by intellectual curiosity,” she says, looking around Harris’s Hard Living Room, a room that didn’t even exist when she attended F&M, when she would hike up the steep stairs in Stager to attend business classes. “F&M has really instilled a lifelong love of learning, so I miss that the most.”
Visit Presenza’s website.
Visit Presenza’s Facebook.
Photos courtesy of http://www.shoppresenza.com/