Jennifer Hudson's Bag Designer, Sonique, Defends Her After Thrift Bag Find

Jennifer Hudson's definitely ruffled some feathers with the revelation a luxury bag gifted to her, by a rising Black designer, is now in a thrift store -- but even the designer insists haters should lay off the singer.

Sonique Saturday tells TMZ ... Jennifer is completely good in her book. In fact, she's urging folks to cut her some slack and stop attacking her online.

ICYMI, J Hud came under fire when a video started making the rounds -- it showed a woman who found one of Sonique's bags at a thrift store. It had clearly been gifted to Jennifer because there was a special note to her inside.

Folks on social media were quick to jump down Jennifer's throat ... calling her out for discarding the Black woman-owned brand.

However, Sonique tells us everyone else is taking the viral video out of context. She explains the bag is from 2014, and Hudson's team actually paid for it. They gifted it to her to celebrate one of her many career accomplishments -- so, it wasn't a freebie that Jennifer callously discarded.

She's not even sure Jennifer ever got the bag and has no idea how it ended up in a thrift shop. Regardless, she says she wants to use this opportunity as leverage with the "Spotlight" singer and to highlight Black-owned businesses.