Well, Paul, let’s start easy… what’s your background?

Unfortunately nothing too interesting! I’m from Birmingham and completely self-taught within the fashion industry and design. I started with a brand called ‘Maide Original’ around 7 years ago after doing a marketing degree at University. That basically never advanced further than screen and sublimation prints, but it all helped provide the foundation to move forward with the complete manufacturing process and sourcing every element of a garment. Now with Mirari on what is effectively our 3rd collection. 

Explain the brand name: “Mirari”

‘Mirari’ is the Latin origin of the word ‘Mirage” and translates to ‘to look at, to wonder at’ which I think fits well in the fashion industry. To me, if you break down what fashion is then it’s all about aesthetics and simply put it's just looking at style and outfits. The idea of ‘looking at and wondering at’ just sat well with me.

In this current landscape of overnight brands, how do you find it navigating through a saturated market?

It’s definitely tough, especially for developing brands, to convince people to buy into what the ‘vision’ is.

Without that sounding like too much of a cliche, I think people buy into authenticity more now, they want to support a brand whose key focus is the product and the work that has gone into that. It’s really difficult to show people the time, care and detail that has been put into the clothing, so it’s just a matter of being patient and allowing the clothing to speak for itself when it arrives on peoples doorsteps. One of our main aims is to continue to build a community around the brand that reflects those efforts. I feel people can see past what I’d say are ‘ego’ brands that are there just to satisfy the needs of the owner but I guess that's why 75% of brands don’t make it past 2 years trading. 

 The goal is and will continue to be to support the people that support you with a quality product and make sure they want to keep coming back. 

To what scale do you envision your brand being at, do you think a fashion show is within reach?

It’s not something on the horizon at the moment, we’ve got a lot of other areas we can better spend our energy developing first but it would be amongst the future plans. Alongside lookbooks etc, it’s such a good way to represent how you want to position the brand. I really like what Reece Cooper did with their latest show but to develop something on that level would be a way off and I don’t think there's much point in doing something if you know you’re not going to be doing it at 100%. 

Financially, does it require a hefty sum of investment to get started?

I’m sure all brands have different stories regarding this topic but personally speaking, it was a significant investment to me. Majority of the manufacturing is done here in the midlands with quality fabrics milled in England as well, which just costs more. That alongside high-end hardware and getting the finer details right all adds up, but the financial investment needs to be matched by the investment of time and energy that just wouldn’t be there if the standard wasn’t right. The whole purpose of this was to create something that I was proud of and I’d want to wear myself and I’d only want to wear quality. Creating that does take time and money. If you don’t believe in or stand by what you’re selling it just won’t work.

 In an ideal world, which stores would you like to be stocked in?

Places like SSense, Mr. Porter and End clothing is a big one...to be positioned alongside brands like Reece Cooper, Aime Leon Dore, Rhude and more recently seeing what brands like Cole Buxton are doing provides real motivation for that.
 

What are 3 key pieces of information which consumers should take away from this interview?

I guess firstly I want people to understand the quality of the garments. Secondly, would be that I value every order and customer. People work hard for their money so I want them to get something that could last a lifetime in their wardrobe and become essential pieces for them. And then lastly, we are still just getting started so there’s still a lot more development, creativity and growth to come. 

Have you experienced any Brand milestones yet?

The first sales in Europe and America were and still is a great feeling. Just on the surface level to design a product from scratch, source every element of it and then sell that to the other side of the world is a pretty nice feeling. 

What other products can we expect to see from you all soon?

More similar pieces to what we have now that fit into our ‘slow fashion’ and adaptable model. The aim was to create these sort of rough and ready pieces that can just be thrown on - but then also fit any environment. So I’ll continue to create pieces that work all year round that can be used for everyday wear but also smarter occasions.   

 There are more flannels coming and we’re adding some more adaptable items like what you’ve seen with the reversible pieces and zip off cargos/ shorts. 

What’s been the biggest challenge for you so far?

When I started with the first collection we had major manufacturing problems and I nearly gave up there and then. I had a meeting with a manufacturer in London and we agreed for them to sample and manufacture the whole collection in the UK. We went through the whole process with all our materials and saw their factory and were really impressed, as we wanted a high-end finish. Behind my back, they ended up outsourcing to a factory in Asia and not telling me and everything went wrong. Not that I have an issue with manufacturing abroad but we wanted to keep everything in the UK so we could have greater transparency for what was going on and visit the factory.  On top of that, we were also paying a premium for that service (which I foolishly paid 75% upfront). 

 Anyway, the initial samples were a real mess and alarm bells started ringing. I even questioned if they had made the samples themselves but they reassured us they had and I eventually reluctantly signed off, they already had my money so my hands were sort of tied. The full production order came and it didn’t match the samples. One garment they produced 90% of the ordered quantity in just the size extra large! I faked a letter from a solicitor to them regarding this (as I couldn’t afford a lawyer all the money was in this) and they admitted what had happened. It was from that point the whole process was completely compartmentalised. So now we use specialists for each segment of production and have genuinely good people producing for us so happy days. You just have to deal with these things in the best way you can and try to learn from them.

What’re your favourite pieces from the new collection?

Definitely the cargos and reversible bomber jacket, but the jacket might just edge it!! It took a lot of work to not compromise on the original design and desired finish. It was also manufactured right around the corner from The Hawthorns and I’m an Albion fan so it feels a bit more special to me for that reason too! That and the logo joggers are what I practically live in at the moment so I’d definitely say those two.

What do you hope to achieve from this latest collection?

The main goal is to build our audience and community around the brand. I want this collection to show us as a staple for key pieces that can be worn in any season. I also want people to recognise the brand for the quality and fits of each piece. So if it's received in that manner then that's a great push in the right direction for the brand. 

How do you come up with the inspo and ideas for your products?

The short answer and practically speaking is just analysing my own wardrobe of what works and what could be better! All the pieces designed are things I'd wear, which is the key reference and number one rule for me producing anything. 

Going a bit deeper there would be a few inspirations I draw from. The emotions I feel from these cues is what I want to translate into how it feels to wear the clothes. This could range from vintage clothes, furniture, contemporary design, film, sport, music… Doesn’t sound much but it’s taking that feeling of creativity and turning it into a tangible product.

 One very simple example of this is the Mirari Logo Shorts. The chenille patch was custom made and inspired by a picture on Instagram of a guy’s hair that was dyed half and half with those colours. It felt like a real expression of creativity but also felt quite subtle for something that’s fairly bold. I wanted to capture that feeling in some way so I included colours when I designed the patch and built the other elements around it.

Post Covid-19, what are your plans for the brand? … can you give us a little taster of what’s to come?

Just to keep expanding on what we’re doing now. There is fabric bought and designs developed so hoping this can all be pushed through a lot quicker than before. The last lockdown did halt manufacturing for a short while but hopefully, everyone remains safe and healthy and things can run smoother now. 

Can we expect a collaboration with another brand in the near future?

Nothing with any other brands at the moment but if Israel Adesanya, Dominic Fike or Snoh Aalegra want to hit us up I’m sure we could work something out haha!

You can shop the new collection here.