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By Robere Lett | Publisher | Style Editor.

Meeting Teresa and Giovanni Perna almost three years ago was both inspirational and aspirational, this mother and son design duo took my breath away. Hailing from Toronto Canada, we met at a fashion event in Lansing Michigan during a period when our state capital was looking to invigorate the downtown retail market of Lansing, by inviting designers from various parts of the country to be a part of a fashion incubator. The project never really got off the ground but the opportunity to get to know Teresa and Giovanni was priceless. Sustainability is key to their design philosophy and has been their core business motto long before the trend became a mantra. Mayd in Chyna is adamant in keeping everything they design vegan and 100% sustainable even at a great cost to their business operation. It is often 3-4 times more costly to run this type of design house due to the high cost of fabrication, notions, and processes that are required. Catching up with this busy duo is a rush and whirl, so I let them tell me everything new and wonderful happening with the Mayd In Chyna brand! www.maydinchyna.com

“Made to Measure” means no inventory for us at all!!!....none....we only produce when our customers put in their “made to measure” order. It's a win-win situation, we give our customers the perfect fit so that there are no returns, in exchange we create no waste, and there are no warehouses to maintain, which in the end helps not only the environment but the profitability of our business.

Meet The Designers

FLYING SOLO COLLABORATION: "This partnership will begin September of this year". Flying Solo is a unique concept --- it is a retail cooperative founded by a jewelry designer by the name of Elizabeth Solomeina. It consists of three stores now in New York in the Soho area that retails fashion products from emerging and newly established designers. It's a collaborative space where designers share the costs of the space through a membership fee and sell directly to the consumer and in the meantime assist each other in any way possible, by either exchanging their knowledge and expertise or by just providing emotional support during the daily grind of trying to be successful. It is a much needed venue because new and unknown designers such as ourselves rarely get an opportunity to be stocked by brick and mortar retail stores, because established boutiques and retailers don't want to take a chance on someone new and are very hesitant to stock something that is not in keeping directly with their aesthetics. So this was done as a way of giving emerging designers that opportunity of “getting their foot in that almighty fashion door” so that they can gain some visibility. When you are starting out, getting that break from a retailer is the most difficult thing for a designer to achieve, and opening your own “brick and mortar” boutique is beyond most of our financial reach, so this retail community concept is a godsend because designers share the costs and the benefits that come with being together and supportive of one another. 

Additionally, it provides the opportunity for designers to meet and partner on different projects; space is also used for photoshoots/press appointments/showcasing, etc. All in all, the space is an area for all the designers to work together, flourish, and become visible to the consumer and the industry...it's like a shared home for us all!

THE FA EX BERLIN COLLABORATION: We are happy and excited about another collaboration we are part of with the Fashion Exchange EU (FA EX) that is to begin in October/November of this year. FA Ex supports owner-managed independent fashion labels and they do this through a holistic community model concept. They are focused on long-term relationships and cooperation with their designers so much so that they are planning to implement production and financing options into their model. For example, they built up the B2C network for the designer with the retail trade through semi-yearly tours lasting 10-12 days throughout Germany and they do this via Pop Up Stores and Events such as Berlin Fashion Week and Showroom venues. They also support emerging designers with their marketing by publishing a semi-yearly magazine since 2018. Presently, they have launched an online shop as an additional sales channel for their designers. They handle all the photoshoots and press announcements and any other PR initiatives that are required. This is all done through various membership plans that are available for the designer depending on the designer's needs and finances.

Lastly, we really love the fact that their selection criteria are stringent in that they look for designers that have a transparent and verifiable supply chain, fabrics, and materials that are sustainable and environmentally non-toxic and designs and styles that are classic and stand the test of time. If you know anything about us, you will know that these are areas are our strong suits when it comes to how we produce our line.

CIRCULAR.FASHION COLLABORATION: Another partnership that we are waiting to be part of is Circular. Fashion based in Berlin, Germany. This partnership is all about fashion circularity meaning that fashion production should be a circular process where all fibers used during the production of a fashion piece should be a fiber that can be reused or recycled into another piece at the end of that piece's life cycle...in other words, a closed-loop production system where nothing is wasted or thrown out but reused to create something new. This production model is sustainability and environmental stewardship at its best! No waste in landfills and no waste of resources. We feel that our Brand fits perfectly with this concept because we only use a single fiber for our clothing....certified organic cotton for all our pieces including linings, trims, and labels which can easily be reused or recycled into another new piece for someone else to enjoy and cherish. How cool is that!!!....we all benefit. This concept will become functional through a QR code that we can download and print onto our labels which will reveal to the consumer the exact fabric composition of our pieces.

ROOTIP COLLABORATION: This collaboration is very new. Rootip is new digital platform that helps sustainable and ethical brands such as ours tell the story of how our products are made so that we can create a richer and more engaging consumer experience for the customer that builds trust and hopefully help us with our sales. It was founded by Ali Nourbakhsh, based in London, England.

Rootip is an Application that enables ethical businesses like ours to enhance their retail exposure by selling their products through this platform. This platform however is very different from the many other platforms out there that you can choose to sell your products. With Rootip, we get the opportunity to map out our entire supply chain for our customers, tell the story of our brand and our pieces (via Story cards) to conscious consumers, and there is an option that allows for all employees in the supply chain to be rewarded by means of tips. Yes ... Rootip is designed to enable the consumers to pay any tip amount they wish to show their satisfaction and gratitude to the people whose jobs are usually never seen and recognized in the supply chain (i.e the farmer who grew our organic cotton, the machine operator who operates the knitting or weaving machine that weaves/knits our fiber, etc). A QR code is also used for the functionality of this application; we can download and print it onto our labels which will reveal our story, our production, our supply chain, and its employees.

Presently, we have been asked to test the functionality of the app during their experimental launching period so that we can assess whether or not it adds any value to our business. There is no fee for this for us at this time, fees will only apply when we are satisfied that we are getting direct value from this exposure, i.e. sales. We have full access to the platform in order to upload our pieces and tell our product stories while benefiting from being part of this whole experience of interacting not only with our customers but with supply chain employees. A truly unique and holistic approach to supply chain transparency and accountability.... we love it!