Jess is an incredible woman, and one we greatly we admire. Not afraid to open conversations about confronting topics others might shy from and is highly considered in her approach. Jess is a wordsmith, a story-teller and when she isn’t sharing fashion, architecture and satirical narrations of her daily happenings, she is shining light on the things that you should care about it.
Over lockdown we became addicted to following Jess’ family’s cooking roster; it had us not once, but twice licking the phone-screen, absolutely guttered both times not to be able to taste the results. This close knit family knows how to throw a meal together!
It is a real treat to feature Jess with her mum Florence in this series. Find a cuter duo. We’ll wait.
Ok, tell us more about the cooking...
I've been posting our lockdown dinners/recipes on my stories and sharing all the experiments I've been doing in the kitchen! But what people haven't seen are the 'behind the scenes' - those precious family moments I will treasure forever. I'd usually text my mum after I finish work for the day and asked if she'd help me cook! She's not like other mums - she HATES cooking and only has a few good recipes. But this is why we work! I love cooking but hate the cleaning up after, and she loves cleaning but hates cooking. I've recently discovered that I love cooking way more when it's a social thing, so we've been doing it together. We jokingly call it our 'collab' and she always asks if it's a paid one and I say it's for exposure. I've got loud speakers in the kitchen and we usually play The Greatest Showman's soundtrack and sing and dance while we make dinner every night.
What has lock-down been like for your bubble, what vice, if any, got you through?
Our family lockdown activity for Level 4 was watching all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in the right order. Mum was so not into the idea at first! In fact, I asked her to watch it with us during the Christmas break but she just flat out refused to, saying that she probably won't like it as they are 'action films'. I told her she has two young sons who love superhero films, and my dad notoriously falls asleep halfway through our family movie night and I think Marvel films would be the ultimate crowd pleaser. Enough action for the lads, some thirstiness for me (LOL), and a good storyline for her! Both her and my dad have never seen any of the films before and my goal was to get them so invested in the characters that by the time we get to Endgame, they would be hardocre Marvel fans. Well, we've finished all 22 films and she is officially a massive fan. She loves the Hulk and Thor so much - she even pretended to be Thor when she used the hammer to fix my gallery wall the other weekend.
Tell us about your mum Florence, and the things you love most about her.
It's my mum's grit, resilience, and positive attitude that I admire the most about her. I'd like to think that I, too, am resilient and optimistic and relentlessly believing in the good of everything. These qualities are the qualities I love the most about myself and I have her to thank for that! She is also the original influencer. When we found this house to rent, we really wanted it but they had a strict 'no pets' rule so my mum found the cutest photo of our cat and sent it to the property managers and she managed to persuade them to write 'and one cat' in the contract! Ginger is her baby and has brought so much love and joy to our family and there's not a day where we don't talk about how grateful we are to live here with her!
Photography: Tash and Arie Stokes, Black Robin Photography
Saben Style: Jess wears Saben staple style Frankie. It is intuitively functional without compromising on style. With shoulder handle and cross body strap offering multiple ways to wear.
Florence wears new sihoulette, Skye in season hero hue, rosewood.
More from Jess: follow her @jessmolina
