The Wooden Glass House on The Hills

My friend Jess Blume, or Jume, as we all know her, started her clothing label out of a small bungalow down on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in 2018. Sharing her nickname, the label Jume pays homage to long dreamy summers filled with friends, sunshine and blue sparkling seas. Gathering attention across Australia almost immediately after launching, Jume the label has kept on the fringe of trends, creating timeless apparel to be worn for a lifetime. Feeling the pull of her hometown, Byron Bay, Jume made the move back up north and now lives in a home surrounded by rainforest. As I drove up to her house in Wilsons Creek, I immediately remembered how tropical and dense the rainforest can grow in the Northern Rivers. I was excited to spend the day with Jume in her wooden glass house and see what she had to show and tell.

Words and Photography by Marlee Pasinetti @marlee_m_p

How long have you been living and creating from this home?
One year now! We moved in two weeks before we were evacuated from the bushfires.

Tell me your morning routine.
I lie around half asleep until my partner, Reu, gets up and I smell coffee, then I come down and make one for myself or Reu hands me one he’s already got ready. Then I check through emails in case anything may dictate my plans for the day and then check the surf – if there are waves about, I pack anything I need for my day: surfboards, camera, stock, tools and jump in the car. If there’s no surf, I sit back down in the lounge room and ground myself. I do my tarot, have a stretch and make a matcha. If it’s hot or I’m feeling dusty, I jump in the creek for a wake up spritz! 

What made you want to live in the rainforest?
I have wanted to live in the rainforest my whole life! I always dreamed of growing up and moving to a Pacific Island and until I do that (which is still on the cards) this is my dream home. My best friend, Nell Pearson, painted my portrait for my 30th birthday and it’s funny because she superimposed me into her vision of my dream living room and it’s this house but I hadn’t seen it yet! It was a few months later that Reuben messaged me and told me he found his dream home and wanted to buy it with his dad and wondered if I would like to do that with him. I was in Sumbawa at the time and it had taken a flight, two overnight freight ships and a week-long scooter ride across three islands to get there so I felt like I was so far away from home when his photographs of a trashed, half-built house came through to my phone. I couldn’t believe how magical it was. I said yes right away. I had never felt so sure of my intuition.

What is your most prized possession?
Well I only have prized possessions! I move a lot and only my treasures survive, but the things I love most are my paintings by Nell, my ceramic vase that Layla and Streety made me (it has me and all the things I love painted on it), my first ever shortboard which is a rainbow 80s Hot Buttered thruster, my Keto 6ft hull from 69’ which I still ride all the time and my wooden toucan which I bought in the jungle in Argentina and have been lovingly lugging around for many years. Oh, and my coconut. My coconut is my most recent forever love made by an old lady called Edna Rose. She hand paints them with these trippy tropical scenes and sells them to the corner store in some little town in Far North Queensland that we stopped at for burgers during a sailing trip a few months ago. 

How has this space changed the way you live and create?
This house has changed me deeply in ways I didn’t expect. I have become more spiritual and intuitive and reflective here and I know it’s related to the vibes here but can’t explain why. I also fell back in love with my own company in this home. I crave being here alone, dancing, cooking, hiking up the mountain, lying around just staring at the trees. I feel connected to everything in a really palpable and grounded way and that alone has been deeply transformative for the way I think and feel, and navigate my life. I feel very grounded having a little patch of the earth to plant my healing herbs and flowers in and because of that, I have found that I have more energy for creating, working, designing and expanding. 

What’s the story behind Jume the label?
I always loved making clothes. I used to sew a lot when I was in uni because I couldn’t afford to buy the things I wanted. Years later when I was studying textiles at RMIT I got really obsessed with weaving, cloth, fibre and special yarns. Textiles are amazing – a universal creative and necessary collaboration between humans and the animal and vegetal world and I feel like we take that for granted sometimes. Also at the time there were like two brands that were making ethical clothes I actually liked. I thought ‘Why aren’t there more options that are sustainable and super nice?’ So I thought, fuck it, I can just make one. I knew how to do it sustainably because at RMIT we had a great class each semester that was all about that and my understanding of yarn meant I knew which plants were most ethical to farm. I knew I could design things easy enough so I decided to give it a hoon. 

“This house has changed me deeply in ways I didn’t expect. I have become more spiritual and intuitive and reflective here and I know it’s related to the vibes here but can’t explain why.”

What was before Jume?
Before Jume I was making vessels for various people while studying in Melbourne. I made rope bowls for Gemma Patford, ceramic planters with Leaf and Thread, painted pots and lamps for Pop & Scott. Fun creative jobs that taught me a lot about small business. Before that I was studying philosophy and writing at Melbourne University and working for years at a really special little Columbian cafe called Sonido. 

Your garments all look very easy breezy to move in – who is the Jume woman you have in mind when designing your pieces?
I wanted to make clothes that were comfortable and easy to throw on without much fanfare and still feel like a sexy goddess. I guess the garments morph with my mood, I change my style a lot over the years so I presume the clothes will too but ultimately my dream Jume customer is someone who loves the earth enough to invest in ethical choices and loves themselves and wants to wrap their heavenly body in something comfortable, delicious to touch and truly flattering. I think they would be sensual and romantic, but still practical and willing to get their hands dirty. The dresses are all great for dancing, the shorts and trousers are tough and practical and made with boating and travelling in mind.

You had a pretty intense end of 2019 with bushfires threatening your home and 2020 hasn’t been the easiest for many brands. How has the last 12 months been for you?
Yeah it was wild! Very scary and a super close call, I think I dissociated through most of it [laughs]. I was surfing in Sumatra when COVID-19 hit hard and I had to decide whether to stay in Indo and work from there or head back. I eventually chose Australia and it hasn’t been too bad. The pandemic didn’t really make it to Byron so I was totally fine compared to most so can’t complain at all. Production was delayed by six months and the winter drop missed winter and sales dropped due to so many things being sold out – little things like that, but nothing worth worrying about in the scheme of 2020 nightmares. My label is small with a tiny team of sewers and no staff members, just me, so it was pretty chill. I did some fun shoots, surfed heaps, lived on a budget to stretch what money I had and went sailing for a month on my teeny boat which was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. Oh! And I started building a shop in Byron Bay which is super exciting! 

Besides working on your label, what else do you do in your spare time?
I read heaps, cook delicious meals every night, garden, sail, surf and hang out with friends, lots of long walks too and help Reu build his new bigger sailing boat. A lot of the time I also work on this house. It had no kitchen or bathroom or deck when we moved in. We showered with a bucket in the yard for months and cooked with a camping stove but it’s slowly coming along. My dad’s a carpenter and Reu’s dad is a plumber so we are doing it all ourselves and it takes a lot of time. I’m also deep in the building of the new shop space in the Byron industrial estate. I’m doing it with Lora from Good Publishing and some old friends who moved here from New York during COVID-19. It’s going to be a record store and publishing in the front then clothing, swimwear accessories and homewares in the back. Me and Melati are making furniture which I am excited about – weird and wonderful lights and stools and stuff. We are hoping to bring the community in for events, workshops, films, little gigs etcetera and really pop it off so hopefully that will be open by Christmas.