WHO ARE WE?
Miista upends the exclusionary practices of the fashion industry in an effort to show how we’re living now. Over the last ten years we are proud to have built a brand that through craft, our community, the risks we’ve taken and a willingness to laugh at ourselves, has made a commitment to the alternative. A dedication to the opposite thing. What does that mean? That we’re happy to sacrifice profit and to subvert problematic fashion trends to create a product that has personality in addition to aesthetic value. You know when it’s a Miista.
The economic crisis of 2020 gave us the opportunity to reshape our business and we are excited to take that challenge with both hands. As we celebrate a decade of Miista, our priority is now cutting our supply chain down and complete transparency in every product we make. In our newly created page The Opposite Thing, you can find out exactly what we’re doing to uphold our ambitions. The last thing we want to do is waste your time with generic promises and no follow through.
A Decade of Miista
‘’ I founded Miista in 2010 in East London to create shoes that were original, experimented with texture and shape, and importantly, had a democratic price point for a luxury item.
At the time I felt there wasn’t enough experimentation between making a product with the highest quality European-only sourced materials, and the practice of radical shoe design. Both myself and Pablo (now not only my brother but my business partner), were brought up with the belief that you should shop less and make your belongings last for longer. We wanted to create a luxury investment item that you could own and wear forever.
We grew up in the North of Spain by the Atlantic coast, an area with a history of fashion production dating back to 19th Century artisans who handmade linens — some of these artisans are our ancestors. I have always been interested in the ownership of the fashion supply chain and this year we invested in our own factory for the Miista brand to produce our inaugural Autumn/Winter 2021 ready-to-wear collection’’
Laura Villasenin
Ready-to-what?
The story of affordable ready-to-wear fashion has a significant origin story in the north of Spain. In the 19th century, it was common for women to make clothes to earn extra money in order to support their families — usually, their husbands would be fishermen, working all night off the Atlantic coast. They largely made linens, clothing and table cloths. Our founder Laura still has many linens in her family home in Galicia, Spain, from this time. This 19th century small-scale industry was the seed of what is now a hugely profitable global fashion production process. During the 19th Century the north of Spain was one of the poorest regions in the country. Because of this, the clothes being made were by working people for other working people. Simple ready-to-wear clothes for a life that was demanding. With the arrival of industrialisation in the latter part of the 19th century, everything changed. Something that makes this moment in history so relevant for Miista is that the artisans making clothes in the region simply did not desire to expand to the mass production level that the rise of fast fashion was demanding. As a consequence, the industry slowly disappeared, losing most of its business to the booming fashion industry in Catalonia, Spain.
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Clothes for working people, made by working people
There is a little-known history of artisan garment production in A Coruña, north of Spain. By establishing our own factory in this region, we’re aiming to help bring back this ready-to-wear industry for ordinary working people in northern Spain. We believe that the human power of real life artisans simply cannot be replaced by machines. These people not only spent years learning their craft, but grew up around parents and grandparents who had helped establish the industry. When we talk about clothes made by the people for the people, we’re thinking of the history of handmade clothes in the north of Spain, where our own garment factory is. Historically, this trade, which is now a £21bn mass produced industry, was founded by ordinary farmers who on the side, would make linens and other ready-to-wear garments. In the face of mass industrialisation, our desire is to restore this craft by employing local people to make clothes again.
We strongly believe that luxury means handmade craftsmanship, and we wish to restore the once thriving production industry of artisan-made ready-to-wear clothing in the north of Spain. We strongly believe that this is the right thing to do, and while we’re a small business, we want to contribute to change in the most effective way we can. We are a Spanish family-run business and we have benefitted from the work of our Spanish craftspeople to make a profitable product. It is only right that we give back to that economy.