• 01/06/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 581 Views

Designer Mimi in the Prague galaxy<

"I've been looking for a long time," says Mimi, looking around contentedly. The studio in Prague's Hradčany breathes inspiration. Antonín Slavíček painted here, Jaroslava Muchová, the daughter of the famous father Alfons, created and lived here. "Daylight is most important," Mimi nods toward the generous window. Pieces from the upcoming collection are hung around; a wedding dress sewn on a mannequin; soft and girly. As their author. Mimi Nguyen Hoang Lan.

Both parents are painters. Mom leaves to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Czechoslovakia when Mimi is four. "I grew up with my dad in the studio. He sat and painted, I sat next to him and did the same. He said - I need green, but lighter. He trusted me, he let me mix his colors. That was great training.'

Mom sends clothes from Prague. "It looked completely different from ours. It was always too big or too small. In terms of winter things, I was terribly hot in Vietnam," recalls Mimi. Pedro chewing gum is also available. "Also pictures with Bob and Bob and the Mole," he laughs - as he always does.

The year is 1993, fifteen-year-old Mimi sets out to visit her mother in the newly born republic. "I didn't even notice that I was flying to the Czech Republic, for me there was only Prague, it seemed like another galaxy." The visit would last for twenty-two years.

Mimi Nguyen Hoang Lan

Exotics

It's March and Mimi needs a winter coat. “Mum took me to the White Swan. All the coats there were khaki at the time, where I looked there was only khaki. I said – Mom, this is a store specifically for military clothing?” She was swimming in her coat. “My size was not available, I had to wear children's clothes. And I didn't enjoy that.” And so Mimi becomes her own seamstress and designer out of necessity. "I went around thrift stores, there were a million of them, and I combined, modified. Different styles and colors like when you are building legos. For example, I made a skirt out of a huge denim jacket, sewed the pockets and sleeves, added pictures and patterns."

She heard from all sides: You are exotic... "I didn't understand the word exotic, so I looked it up in the dictionary. And then I thought to myself - me and exotics? You are exotic," she bursts out laughing. In the subway, she looked at people - and they looked at her. "You seemed mega-exotic to me. Grandma with purple hair, I've never seen that in my life. Next to the curly red-haired girl, even her eyebrows were red - does that exist? I said to my mother: Why do they say that we Asians are exotic? We all have black hair and small eyes. They all look different. I felt like I was on another planet.”

When she was choosing a college, she was drawn to art school. But Mom wanted a more practical occupation for Mimi. "She wished me a calmer life. I didn't even think then that I would be a designer." She is going to study at the Faculty of Social Sciences. But she sews her clothes all the time. Classmates get excited about her fresh fashion, they start ordering from Mimi. For a few bucks. She will dress almost everyone at graduation.

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With ease

After college, she is preparing her first collection, founding the label La Femme MiMi. "I had a presentation at the Czech Center, it was a success. For some reason, they all approached me on their own. I was invited to the Designblok presentation." For a long time, she did not take design seriously - no determination and stubbornness. "It was fun, relaxing. I didn't care if anyone liked my clothes. I didn't decide at all whether my fashion was for the Czech market or not. Today, if someone says that I am not for the Czech market, I will be offended. Or I call right away and ask why," laughs Mimi.

In her fashion, Asian inspiration is visible from the beginning, she combines colors, patterns and materials, she often uses hand embroidery, she likes to work with silk. According to Mimi, the main feature of the brand is femininity, delicate feminine elements and play with detail. He enjoys recycling old materials, breathing new life into them.

La Femme MiMi is gaining clientele and supporters. In 2009, he presented for the first time at the Amsterdam Fashion Week, since 2010 he has regularly participated in the Modepalast Vienna Fashion Week and the domestic Prague Fashion Week.

But Mimi still goes to work, earns money in other ways. "Until about 2011, I took it as a joke. All the Vietnamese were selling clothes here, the markets were full of fakes. And I, a Vietnamese woman, will design the clothes, that's for sure," she jokes.

But sales grew. “Everything I made sold out and there was a demand for more pieces. I gradually invested more time and energy into it. Until I suddenly realized that I have so many orders that I can't keep up. My accountant came and said: hey, we'll have to pay VAT now. And I - that's thick. I really didn't expect it.” In the world of fashion, an industry in which there is ruthless competition, Mimi entered with ease - and actually by accident. "I thought to myself: the job chose you, so you will have to devote yourself to it."

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When you do beautiful things

She opened a boutique in Prague - you can find it in Štěpánská Street - and started working full time for the La Femme MiMi brand. He clings to the shop a lot, he can beat up the shop assistants. "The boutique is our face. The saleswoman is much more important than me, much more important than the things we sell. She is the one who meets the customers," Mimi is convinced.

Initially, she sent prototypes sewn in Prague to seamstresses in Hanoi, today she mostly sews her clothes in Czech workshops. She has five full-time employees and several seamstresses who sew from home when needed – usually when a new collection is coming up. "Except for the silk stuff - we import that from Vietnam, so we have it straight and sewn there. And also hand embroidery, Czech seamstresses are not related to them, in Hanoi it is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation in families."

During the past five years of designing full-time, Mimi realizes how difficult it is to succeed in the world of fashion. "The clothing industry is one of the most difficult industries. Everyone sells clothes. But I work in a field that no one needs. Everyone needs underwear, good quality and at a good price, but I don't offer that. I make beautiful clothes. With a sense of feeling, wit and detail. If I sold Vietnamese food, I'm fine. But with what I do, I have a lot of worries," Mimi thinks.

In 2012 she was selected as a young promising designer from Europe for a presentation in Linz at ModeZone Linz.

She also opened a boutique in Amsterdam. But when her second child was born, regular travel to Holland became too much of a burden. "Even though I had a good team there, you can't do it from a distance. We closed the boutique, but we regularly make a showroom there, I have a lot of customers in Holland."

Last year, she presented her work at Shanghai Fashion Week.

New Mimi Lan Collection

Models from the current La Femme MiMi collection, called Porcelain

Reason and feeling

I ask how she would react if an investor appeared, offered an investment in the order of millions, but in return asked for a share in the company. Mimi gets serious for the first time. I have no idea how sensitive a question I asked. "That situation is here right now. An investor is interested in us, wants to invest in our brand. She agrees to keep me free creatively, but wants fifty percent in the company. It's a terribly difficult decision. I feel how we need it, without an investor I go slowly like a turtle, I can't take risks, I don't even have anything to do. I have a lot of plans where I see potential, but the capital is lacking. But I also feel responsible towards the five people I employ, as well as towards myself and my family," thinks Mimi. The entry of an investor means clearly defined conditions - if the company does not reach the set budget within a certain time, it automatically goes into bankruptcy. "The insurance company will pay for it, but I'll lose the brand that I've been building for years... Reason says go for what you're doing, and emotion says no." The dilemma is still open, Mimi is worried about him.

The new collection with tapestry embroidery makes her happy. "See? These are real Czech tapestry pillows, paintings, souvenirs that people previously bought and donated. I collected them on the Internet, in antique shops, at flea markets and I put them into a new creation," she shows the coat decorated with an old tapestry painting. Each piece is original. "We want to create a small collection, auction it and give the proceeds to People in Need and Doctors Without Borders. That's my business plan now," he laughs. Recycling and gentleness with materials are interwoven throughout her work.

"Our brand does not want to be the majority, we do not want to be a chain, we do not want to consume so much. We have to sell, but a certain amount is enough, just enough. I am happy when clients write to me that they wear my things all the time. And it bothers me when I hear from a customer - I bought your dress, but I don't wear it, I have nothing to do with it. So it happens that they take pictures of their things and I give advice on how to combine them. The idea that someone will buy my dress and it will just hang in the closet is very sad. I take these things seriously." That's why Mimi tries to make each of her collections truly wearable.

"Things you don't use are dead. In our house, we don't just use pictures, they hang on the wall and we look at them, otherwise we use everything. When there's a thing at home that we don't use, it makes me nervous. I wonder why it's there. "

The roots grow into the ground

I wonder what relationship Mimi has to the galaxy of Prague today, twenty-two years later. "Today? In the morning I had a meeting in Mánes, I was sitting in a cafe next to the gallery, looking at Prague, the river, Žofín, the National Theatre, when I got such an emotional hit, at nine o'clock in the morning," she smiles. "I thought to myself how much I love the city. I thought it would pass, but I feel it more and more. Like when the roots of a tree grow deeper and deeper into the ground.'

He loves potato salad and schnitzels. "And soups, broth with liver dumplings, that's my favorite. At Christmas, my mother-in-law makes a delicious fish soup. Czech cuisine is not my favorite, but I like bábovka or wedding cakes. And Czech bread is unrivaled. I'm taking a suitcase full of loaves on vacation to Vietnam. Dad already wrote to me that I have to take more than last time," laughs Mimi.