Senior Mira Lopez establishes her own brand of one-of-a-kind clothing.
Lopez found her inspiration to create her brand called Made This For You from her great grandma who used to make clothes. She also finds inspiration for her designs from street wear designers such as Danielle Guizio and other smaller brand designers. She is also influenced by current styles that she sees other people wearing.
“I started [altering] my own clothes and stuff I already had back in June and July,” Lopez said. “One day I wore one of the hoodies I made and people really liked it and asked where it was from, so I then made a website and started selling the clothes back in October.”
Lopez has been working in a consignment shop called Finders KeepHers in downtown Manhattan Beach for about three years and has been the manager for about a year-and-a-half. This is where she learned a majority of her skills to establishing her brand, Lopez said. She also learned how to make a website, how to market clothes, and how to pick out clothing with good materials versus lower quality materials at the store. Lopez makes these pieces in a spare bedroom in her house.
“Work has really taught me the foundation of [creating a brand] and the rest I figured out on my own,” Lopez said. “However, when I was little I used to take sewing classes and my great grandma also taught me how to sew.”
All of the orders Lopez receives through her website are handmade, and it takes her approximately one month for the buyer to receive the product since the pieces are not pre-made. Lopez buys the clothes and accessories, such as chains for her pieces, in the Fashion District in Downtown Los Angeles.
“For example, [to make] the tie-dye hoodie, I’ll go and buy the materials specifically for that product like special blends that I like and know [which materials] holds the dye the best,” Lopez said. “For the packaging, I put fun little papers and little hand-written notes that have directions saying to hand wash the clothes and other ways to care for it.”
Lopez uses Instagram to market her brand. She posts content from photo shoots where her friends model her pieces.
“There was a lot of trial and error since I had never made a website before and since I’m not a techy person at all,” Lopez said. “But I watched videos on what’s the best way to do certain things, and [it was a] lot of asking for help.”
Lopez’s favorite part about her brand is coming up with new designs, Lopez said. On Jan. 15, Lopez released five new pieces and is expected to release five more pieces on Feb.1.
“It’s just really fun designing stuff and collaborating with my friends on what they like or think is missing from the pieces and seeing what everyone likes and building stuff off of that,” Lopez said.
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