Across every creative field, from the fine arts to music, there is invariably an avant-garde movement. Fashion is no different and not an exception. In fact, to be considered avant-garde is to exist outside of the established norms and confines of a discipline. Avant-garde designers are not ahead of trends, but they apply a breakaway from pedestrian norms to craft a deviation from the run-of-the mill.
While most avant-garde designers offer widely disparate creations, there are some broad stroke aesthetic and characterisation that tie them together. These factors cascade into the creative hotshot christened Mimi Yina who has steered Medlin brand to enviable heights.
Mimi is very famous today because of luxury brand. One of the things that stands her out is her classy pants which are in hot demand in Nigeria and foreign countries.
Speaking on what inspired the pants, Mimi said: “Everything that has to do with the Medlin brand comes from a passion point of view. I love pants a lot, I used to wear them a lot back in the days. I was going through my archives recently and I saw many of my pictures taken in the University and I realised that all the jeans I was wearing were boot cut jeans. But then I used to buy them when I went to shop in the Uk. I bought them from Zara and from different high-street shops. And I go overboard to buy them from Seven7 Jeans, True Religion and other luxury jeans brands. I love the cut. And I used to buy pants as well, the same cut. So I have loved it for a very long time. And I remember that back then when I used to sell clothes online, I used to use the pants to style most of my tops when I displayed them for sale. So my customers began to ask for it and I said to myself, “It’s like God is trying to tell me something.”
She continued “So there’s this brand in Enugu who saw that I have a social media presence. They wanted me to help them display their clothes after seeing what I love to wear. They made many of these particular pants for me to display. So when I wore them and posted them on Instagram, people started asking for them. So I asked the brand if they could produce for me and sell and they agreed to. So because I love quality, I gave them my fabric to produce. I import the fabric from China, she charges me and I pay her to produce. So we did that for a while and the demand was so high and It got to a point they couldn’t cater for me because they have their own customers to cater for. So we realized that we needed to get our own factory to and we did that and today we are happy we have been able to cater for all our customers home and abroad. The order keeps coming and we take care of everybody without any delay.”
On how the classy pant has impacted positively on her career, she has this to say:
“The style that made people know me is the pants. It’s my good luck charm. There’s something about the pants that the world couldn’t resist. It was the pants that were always bringing people to me.”
Despite the success Mimi has recorded with her fashion brand she is not resting on her oars. She’s doing everything to take her brand to the next level.
“The Medlin Empire is coming. We are coming big. As you can see, at Medlin, we have different branches. Aside from the styling that people know us for, we do way more than that. We do consulting, we do closet changes, we are personal stylists too. We are wardrobe consultants to MD/CEOs of banks, wives of monarchs, first ladies, senators’ wives, top DG’s and we have top societal people as well. Due to non disclosure clauses, most of my clients would not want us to put their names out there. We have many other things we will be unveiling soon.” she said when asked about the new things she’s working on.
A- star celebrities like Ini Edo, Funke Akindele, Alex Unusual among others have all rocked the pants to red carpet events where they held the audience spellbound with these free flowing designs that sits well on their bodies.
