Tina FinkelIn ELLE’s Office Hours series, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we tapped Jamie Haller, a Southern California-bred designer who has built a loyal fashion following around her namesake brand. What started with a humble shoe during the pandemic—a creative hybrid of a slipper and a loafer—has since expanded to denim, ready-to-wear, and, starting today, belts. “I always had this appreciation for the beauty of old things,” says Haller, who used to frequent swap meets and flea markets on the West Coast growing up. Belts offered an opportunity to use leftover materials and match with the rest of her collection. Read more about her career trajectory below, from working as a waitress at an Applebee’s in rural San Diego to dressing everyone from Emily Ratajkowski to Leandra Medine and Mandy Moore.My first jobMy first job out of college was at Wet Seal. It’s of an era; it wasn’t even around for a very long time, but I was also 20 [years old], and I grew up like other teenagers loving Wet Seal the way my daughter loves Brandy Melville. It’s your mall destination, everything-you-want [brand]. I also grew up not really with any budget to ever buy myself anything; my parents never gave me money to buy stuff, so I was always pining for it—if I got it, I’d be so grateful.I was always very ambitious and made a resume filled with fashion illustrations and somehow it landed in somebody’s hands. I worked as an assistant in the production and design department at the headquarters in Orange County—I drove from Los Angeles to Orange County every day. I was very much angling to get into design, but starting off in production gave me a really grounded understanding of technical aspects of fashion design. It was actually an amazing way to start understanding how to make clothes.My worst jobI was a waitress at Applebee’s, and I was just not a good waitress—it was not my forte—and I remember one time I spilled all the drinks on the customers. I cried and [my boss] made me sit down next to them. It was very embarrassing and I quit pretty soon after that. I was not coordinated enough to be serving drinks. Aside from the moments I did not excel at it, I did think it was really fun. The energy was super fun and as a young person I really enjoyed the work, until I didn’t.How I first became interested in fashionWhen I was 6 or 8 years old, I was waking up and watching Style with Elsa Klensch Saturday mornings at 6 A.M. alone in the dark in Lakeside, California. There’s no fashion there. How I was attracted to these moments was just already within me. I also collected every teen magazine in the ’80s, like every fashion girl does. There were moments of tactile appreciation and you only had one. Now there’s so much information and so much flooding that occurs, but in 1985, you would only get one touch point, and you would save it, and it would be near your bed, and it would be very important.I was also a figure skater and I would make all my costumes. I sewed, I made my own weird clothes, I bought vintage and rearranged things and used sheets to make bloomers and wore them under cut-off shorts. I went to swap meets with 50 cents and bought Guess jeans. I didn’t have as much access to things and I didn’t have much money growing up, so I was really thrifty and creative. I was always attracted to creativity and expression through clothes. Around 19, when I was in community college, I met someone in a bar in San Diego, who worked in the “industry,” and this idea that there was some fashion industry, all of a sudden I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life.So I moved to Los Angeles and went to fashion school and got a job and started working.Why I launched my own label during COVIDI had been working for over 20 years as a designer. I spent eight years at large retail companies before moving to smaller, more advanced contemporary brands. COVID gave me time to reflect about what I really wanted to be doing, and it made me feel like I wasn’t in control and that nobody was looking out for me, obviously, because it was a global pandemic. People were getting laid off and furloughed, and I felt I might as well just do something for myself that I was in control of. I was done working for other people and I had all this time to just be creative. Being able to reflect on what you want to be doing is a luxury that I probably wouldn’t have had [if not for COVID]. And I didn’t have anything to lose, so I figured I might as well try and make this shoe.Why loafersI always had this appreciation for the beauty of old things, and particularly Italian vintage men’s shoes. I have this collection of loafers that didn’t fit me, but I would buy them at the Pasadena Flea Market at the City College. And working for small companies, I would always style collections for lookbooks and there would be no budget to buy shoes—I would style [the loafers] on models, and they would fit their feet. It was a moment in fashion footwear where everything was really chunky and the footbed feeling was very prevalent and it was just very much not my style.I was also an avid slipper wearer; I would buy three pairs of ballet slippers from Capezio and would wear them until they fell apart. I grew up barefoot on the sidewalk in the sprinklers. I liked wearing no shoes. I was a very barefooted person—I did not want to feel footwear on my feet. What I did was combine the ballet slipper with the loafer. Technically I didn’t understand what I was doing because I had no training in footwear, but because I had this time on my hands, I did one thing at a time. And I did my research. One phone call after another led me to somebody in Italy.What’s great about loafers is that you can wear them with anything, even sweatpants and a trench coat. They make you feel pulled together. They gave you some kind of confidence [during the pandemic] that you were still there.My design approachI try to not look at everything. There are these trends that happen all the time, and it’s almost disappointing because as a designer you really can tap into some kind of collective unconscious creatively and you feel what’s coming and a good designer knows when to trust instincts about what they’re feeling and that’s what makes somebody a good designer. I tend to make a lot of things just experimentally to try them out and I try to really be led emotionally and I try to keep it very authentic to my own needs, which are more classic and less fashion-intensive. I’m not going to a ton of fashion parties all the time; I’m just living my life. So many things are personal. I’m the ultimate storyteller; I made a teal ballet slipper for spring 2026 and I had just been thinking about teal a lot because I used to wear it when I was a kid and play tetherball in my backyard and listen to the Grease soundtrack. I hold on to these things and they start to percolate.On building a loyal followingThere’s an everyday real-lifeness [to the brand]. The truth is I also like new things and I have an affinity for beautiful materiality; if I’m looking at skins or fabrics, I’m always going to choose the one that’s too expensive. Staying true to myself and making things that are understated and easy to wear in everyday life filled a gap for people. Meg [Dorsey, the founder of Dorsey] DM’d me and asked to come over to my house when I was shipping out of my garage, and it was early Substack days—I didn’t even know what Substack was. It was so powerful. And we have similar stories; and I think people can see part of themselves in me.Why I expanded into ready-to-wearFor the first three years, I was doing most things myself, and it was working, but at some point it started really growing and selling out. I just couldn’t keep anything in stock. The shipment would come in and sell out in two days. I really believed I could make it into something, and I started shopping for denim and couldn’t find anything. The shoes were a palate cleanser for me after working in fashion for so long. Then I started thinking about what it would be like to start making clothes again. Also, we were on the heels of coming out of COVID and you were needing to get dressed again.Robby MuellerA first look at Jamie Haller’s belts.On introducing beltsI go to Italy a lot now; I’m there every three to four months for two weeks and you just meet amazing makers and creatives and there’s access. Because I’m in an industry where I’m using skins to make leather shoes, there are all these production logistics, so I started to think: what else could I do with this extra material so it’s not just sitting there? So I started making belts, which use leftover skins in small quantities. What started as a problem-solver turned into a finisher for the jeans.Shop Jamie Haller BeltsJamie Haller The Wave Belt in OxbloodJamie Haller The Wave Belt in CigaroJamie Haller The Wave Belt in BlackJamie Haller The Wave Belt in CuoioJamie Haller The Slim Bar Belt in BlackJamie Haller The Slim Bar Belt in OxbloodThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.