Founder
The Handbag Sensation – Wilglory Tanjong
Jemima Hunter
May 5, 2022
Meet twenty-five year old Wilglory Tanjong, the handbag enthusiast who went from building a side hustle to a business with a revenue of over a hundred thousand dollars a month. As a Master of Business Administration student, the entrepreneur has been focusing on aspects of business in her university work whilst applying these skills in real life with her luxury handbag company Anima Iris.
Tanjong had always been a determined young woman, working from an early age, but when her mother died in her senior year at school, the entrepreneur didn’t take the time to slow down and deal with the shock. This affected her mental health and so realising this, she took some time out to go travelling.
‘You don’t really know what’s next, you’re a little uncertain, but in doing so I just felt like what I’m doing currently is not for me and I need to figure out what is for me.’
Whilst travelling in Ghana, Tanjong inadvertently began surrounding herself with entrepreneurs of a similar age and decided to establish a YouTube channel interviewing local business owners. During the filming of ‘The African Side Hustle’, Tanjong came across handbag and jewellery craftsmen in Senegal which ignited her passion to be a brand owner.
Soon after, Tanjong discovered a local craftsman that brought her handbag designs to life and started investing her savings into producing a luxury accessories brand. Skip a few months and the entrepreneur kick started Anima Iris, which quickly became a huge success.
‘When people think luxury, they usually think about brands that are handmade items that come from European countries, but what people don’t also recognize is that African creations are inherently luxuries.’
Since opening her shop, Anima Iris had her business promoted as a Black-owned fashion brand featured on Vogue, had thousands of re-tweets of the company’s media accounts and became recognised as the statement bag for Beyonce.
‘Seeing how women, especially Black women, react to a handbag that’s luxurious…and that is also made with them in mind I think creates a special kind of emotional reaction for me and makes me feel like our world really needs. It’s something that is missing in this luxury landscape and can be the next big thing.’
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