Ex-news anchor Jennifer Alejandro blends her love for architecture and artistic heritage in her ONE.61 line of clutches.

Three years ago on her birthday, Jennifer Alejandro’s mother had to be wheeled in for quadruple bypass surgery for her heart. The unexpected trauma stopped Alejandro and her family in their tracks. However, it turned out to be a turning point in her life as it spurred her to bring to life a long buried passion for designing and turn it into an enterprise.

“My mother almost died,” the former business news anchor with Channel News Asia recalls. “It made me realise that life can just be snuffed out. Life can be short.”

She took to the drawing board, went searching for artisanal manufacturers and in January 2013, launched ONE.61, a line of clutches and accessories that combines her penchant for architecture, art and fashion. “I’ve always wanted to design and the clutch is my favourite fashion accessory,” says Alejandro, who owns over 100 clutches.

In a world where the handbag has, by and large, become a woman’s defining accessory, she knew she had to find her own voice. And so, her clutches have become her creative canvas on which she fuses her love for Asian artistry with modern architecture and interior and industrial design. ONE.61 (pronounced one point six one) is named for the Golden Ratio, which refers to the proportions of distances in geo metric figures such as the pentagon and pentagram, and is said to be favoured by many artists, architects and designers.

The first collection from ONE.61 is an “ode to Singapore”, says Manila-born Alejandro, who became a Singapore citizen in 2007. It has five pieces, all inspired by local architectural icons or culture. The standout is Prism, which was the very first clutch she designed and is a salute to the Esplanade performing arts centre at Marina Bay. Made 100% of stainless steel, each point on the Prism clutch is inlaid by hand and mimics the light-reflecting qualities of the spikes on the twin domes of the Esplanade. “The structure of the Esplanade has always fascinated me,” says Alejandro.

Another striking clutch in the line-up is Cage. An outer shell of hand-cut brass is laid on lacquer-finished fibre resin and the design adopts the Art Deco rules of linear symmetry and opulence. Cage is modelled on Parkview Square on North Bridge Road, colloquially known as the Gotham building. The ornate office tower is one of the few bastions of classic Art Deco style in Singapore and counts local firm DP Architects, which jointly designed the Esplanade, as one of its architects.

Cascade, meanwhile, takes a leaf from the drip movement in architecture as well as the groundbreaking Park Royal Hotel on Pickering. Designed by WOHA Architects, the building stops traffic with its undulating layers of concrete, draped in greenery. Alejandro’s drip-style Cascade employs metal-smithing techniques used in furniture making to wrap stainless steel around a brass body, giving the clutch a three- dimensional and sculptural feel.

Another building that has touched Alejandro is The Gateway, a sharp-edged trapezoidal skyscraper designed by US-based architect I M Pei that stands on Beach Road. Her take on this is Fractal, a geometric clutch carved out of sustainable African cherry wood.

The final piece in the collection is the Mirror. A steel octagon dotted with nickel studs, the clutch pays homage to the grand mirrors found in Peranakan homes. Each ONE.61 clutch is made by hand at workshops Alejandro personally found in various parts of Southeast Asia. Very few pieces of each design are made, with each taking between 10 and 12 weeks to complete.

When Options met up with her in early October, she had just launched her follow- up collection, to coincide with Paris Fashion Week. In this bigger range, she showcases her twist on traditional Chinese and Peranakan porcelain and enamel hand painting. The Phoenix Peony clutch comes in seven eye-catching hues, such as fuschia and lime green, with each colour hand-enamelled layer by layer. The clutch is topped by a bamboo clasp.

Another new work of art is Rise, Alejandro’s elegant interpretation of Marina Bay Sands, the integrated resort designed by Safdie Architects. Crafted out of Burmese teak wood and brass, Rise is also a nod to the vintage style of the 1960s. Other pieces in the new collection include Translucence, a box clutch made of clear resin that exudes a modern feel. It is dressed up with mother-of-pearl along the sides, top and bottom and comes in aqua blue and turquoise green.

Alejandro has added accessories to the new collection, such as a Cascade bib Alejandro with her wearable art. Her first collection is an ode to Singapore. Prism, a salute to the Esplanade, is Alejandro’s bestseller to date Rise is inspired by Marina Bay Sands necklace and Cascade cuff, permutations of the drip-inspired Cascade clutch from her signature collection.

ONE.61 clutches retail from US$320 (about $448) to US$1,800. To date, Alejandro has sold about 100 pieces from her first collection, with Prism the bestseller by far. In Singapore, ONE.61 is available at the Museum of Art & Design on Tanglin Road. Elsewhere, it is stocked at Jason Campbell Malibu in California, a fashion boutique set up by the celebrity stylist, and at Ed1tus, a fashion, home and lifestyle showroom in Hong Kong. Most recently, ONE.61 has gained store space in Paris and Riyadh via Le 66, a large multi label concept store.

Seeing her works of art on sale in fashion capitals such as Paris is a point of pride in what Alejandro’s considers her “second chapter in life”. After studying journalism, she carved a long career in the media, spending five years at ABS-CBN Corp in the Philippines and another 10 years at MediaCorp. Following that, she moved into corporate communications, in which she still works.

Every spare moment the 40-year-old now has is channelled into creating “wearable art” from the architecture and heritage that inspire her. “There are lots of women out there who appreciate fine craftsmanship, real stories behind the bags, as well as the quality of materials in the bags,” Alejandro says.

Her endeavour is backed in part by her family in the Philippines, which has ploughed in some funds, with the rest coming from her savings. Her brother is the company’s chief financial officer. As for her mother, she has recuperated from her cardiac surgery and now looks after logistics for ONE.61.

Sunita Sue Leng, formerly an associate editor with The Edge Singapore, was once told that a woman can never have too many handbags.

This article appeared in the Options of Issue 702 (Nov 9) of The Edge Singapore.