Multiple award-winning Irish designer Anna Vahey Casey was born in Dublin but grew up in Sligo, a seaside town located in the "wild west" of Ireland. Anna was 11 years old when she taught herself how to use her mother's old sewing machine. It quickly became her favorite toy.

Design was all that I knew from a very early age. I would spend all my time either drawing or making patchwork quilts for my baby cousins.

A descendant of a design family, Anna's paternal grandmother, whom she never met, was a dressmaker by trade, designing clothing for the English royals in Birr Castle in Ireland.

Anna obtained a degree in fashion design with distinction from the Limerick School of Art and Design. In her very first year she won an award for The Most Electrifying Design, a contest sponsored by the Irish Electricity Board.

In her 4th year, Anna won the prestigious Persil Irish Fashion Award. Named the crème de la crème of young fashion designers, Anna was honored for her exceptional workmanship, design skills, and the potential to develop a career in fashion. The judges, top designers Louise Kennedy and Paul Costelloe, also weigh individuality and an understanding of current fabrics in their final decision.

I received the biggest prize money in Europe for such an award - €10,000.

She appeared on prime time Friday night television where renowned designers, John Rocha and Louise Kennedy, showered her with accolades and her award winnings. As a result of this stunning achievement, Anna received massive media coverage in Europe.

Dedicated to her craft, she used the prize money to enroll in the London-based Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, a school with a reputation for pushing the boundaries of arts, design, and performance. There she studied under several well-known London designers.

Ever since I was at school, I was making scarves, dresses, suits, bags…anything, really, for people. I was also selling them in small shops. Fashion design is my work, but it is also my hobby. It consumes me completely.

In Italy, Anna worked closely with Prince Egon Von Furstenberg, the late ex-husband of Diane Von Furstenberg, on his haute couture line. She traveled with him all over Italy doing shows and meeting celebrated clients like Ivana Trump.

My time working with [Prince Egon Von Furstenberg] was truly inspirational.

Back in London, Anna worked for couture designer, Thomas Starjefski, designing jersey wear for the high street company Oasis. It was during this period that she was approached by high fashion Chinese company, Giada.

I thought the opportunity was too good to be true. I was the only non-Chinese person working at Giada, but that year in China taught me so much about absolutely everything in the fashion business, including the economics. China is an amazing place and how they work is so different from our way of doing things.

Twenty-six year old Vahey Casey’s love of handbags, both as a woman and as a designer, led her to her present venture, designing J’tote Bags, an exclusive line of high fashion laptop bags. The idea came out of necessity for Anna.

I needed to carry a laptop when I traveled and determined that I must have the most beautiful, practical, and inconspicuous laptop bag in which to house this pain-in-the-ass computer. So, I took a nice piece of leather I had in my stock of fabrics, some padding, and an old waterproof rain jacket, which I took apart. I then added some sparkle and sexy little accessories to make a very beautiful bag, which also happened to house my laptop. Everyone who saw it, and who either knew it was a laptop bag or not (most thought it was just a large bag), was asking for one.

The idea expanded shortly thereafter when Anna joined forces with a friend of a friend—a beautiful, fashion-conscious Texan named Jeri Barr, and her Austin-based company, JBarr, Inc. Their mutual goal is to provide themselves and women the world over with exquisite high fashion, functional laptop bags that don't look like a boring laptop bag. J’tote Bags is an exclusive collection of high fashion laptop bags designed to express a woman’s spirited sense of style whether or not she carries a laptop.

Anna Vahey Casey

Browse our collection of J'tote Designer Laptop Bags...