Elaine Turner is a Houston-based accessories designer, specializing in handbags, jewelry, and shoes. Turner is expanding her company to include sunglasses, swimwear, and tabletop.
Personal life
Elaine Turner grew up in Sugar Land, Texas and attended Dulles High School. She attended and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Advertising. After graduation, Turner worked in New York for an apparel firm to gain industry knowledge before returning to Houston. She is married to Jim Turner, co-owner of Elaine Turner Designs and is the mother of a son and daughter. Turner lives in Houston.
Business
Turner started Elaine Turner Designs in April 2000 with her husband Jim Turner. Her first designs were handbags, selling to luxury department storeNeiman Marcus. She was quoted saying, “I created the collection to communicate my dreams and how I wanted to make women feel. Elaine Turner exists to provide a glamorous, giving, intimate, and fun experience by providing customers with an opportunity to be charitable while enjoying accessible fashion. We aspire to empower customers to feel beautiful inside and out.” The Jackie Bag was her first bag, created from raffia, which she was using at the time to re-paper the walls of her Houston home. In 2007, after working out of an office with a small team for a few years, Turner opened her first boutique in Houston’s Rice Village and a second store in Houston’s CityCentre. In July 2012, Turner opened a third boutique in the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio, and in November 2012, Turner opened her first boutique outside of Texas in The Mall of Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee. Her fifth boutique opened in an upscale suburb of Houston called The Woodlands in November 2012. In 2014, she launched a web series on YouTube called Elaine's Big Ideas and opened three new retail stores including two in Dallas, bringing her total number of locations to seven. Turner was a finalist for the 2011 Texas Business Woman of the Year Award. Turner was also named as one of Forbes' Top 40 Tastemakers and recognized as Style Blueprint's Face of the South in 2013.
Philanthropy
Turner is an active supporter of multiple charities, but her main focus lies in cancer-related causes. Turner donates the proceeds of the pink patent Marlaine bracelet to the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center at MD Anderson every year. The bracelet is named after her mother Marlaine White, a breast cancer survivor. She also donates and supports to Heroes for Children, an organization that aids families who have a child struggling with cancer. Turner also raises funds for the CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research. In addition to cancer charities, Turner also supports SNAP, an animal charity that provides free and low-cost sterilization services to the community, preventing the birth of unwanted animals and giving shelter and rescues animals a better chance at adoption. Turner and her husband Jim were also Honorary Chairs of the 2011 'Celebrating Triumph' inaugural luncheon benefitting the Center for Success and Independence.
