Miista Founder Laura Villasenin on Craftsmanship, Community and Collaboration
Since its inception in 2010, Miista has garnered a cult following of celeb fans and it-girls everywhere, here’s how.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the name Miista, you’ll likely have come across the Spanish brand’s distinctive boots, mules and heels on many occasions. Just recently, the brand kitted out Charli XCX and Billie Eilish for the “Guess” video and before that, Miista provided custom clothing and footwear for music icons like Horsegiirl and Liniker.
Founded in 2010 as a footwear label by Laura Villasenin, the brand has grown significantly in the last decade, becoming a go-to amongst fashion fans and it-girls everywhere. “The Miista woman is cerebral, cultural, and witty. They use trends to their advantage,” the founder tells Hypebae.
“They’re not trying to be a follower of others and know how to make their wardrobe their own. Still, they’re discerning in terms of price point. They make their own money and aren’t squandering it. When they spend [money], they need investment pieces, yet something that still offers consistency. They make conscious purchases,” Villasenin adds.
Inspired by Villasenin’s Spanish heritage and the cultural melting pot that is London living, Miista favors traditional craftsmanship, distinctive designs and a handmade approach, all the while operating as a family-run business.
As Miista spreads its wings to the Big Apple, we caught up with Villasenin to find out more about the brand’s approach to design, community and collaboration.
Read on for the full interview.
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How did Miista come about?
After having moved to London in 2001, studied and worked in the industry for a while, I founded Miista in 2010 in East London. I wanted to create a line of footwear that was experimental enough in design & craft while still having a democratic price point. Miista is a made-up word inspired by the way I design, influenced by many elements, mixing and putting opposites together. I wanted to break the stereotypes of a shoe brand in terms of identity and shapes, so we took our traditional Spanish understanding of craftsmanship and started to experiment with the norms and limitations in production, bringing the raw East London aesthetic into play, both in product, styling and creative marketing.
The brand initially started out with footwear. How did it evolve into a fully-fledged fashion brand?
There is a little-known history of artisan garment production in Galicia, north of Spain. By establishing our own factory in this region, we’re aiming to help bring back this ready-to-wear industry. Bringing back craft and preserving techniques that are disappearing. 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 helped establish the industry.
We strongly believe that luxury means craftsmanship and the time you spend in the making of a product, and we wish to restore the once-thriving production industry of artisan-made ready-to-wear clothing in the north of Spain. For us, this is the right thing to do, and while we’re a small independent business, we want to contribute to change in the most effective way we can. We are a young Spanish family-run business (my brother Pablo joined me in this adventure seven years ago) and we have benefitted from the work of our Spanish craftspeople to make our designing passion into a profitable product. It is only right that we give back to the community. We also run a training program with a local school close to where we have set up the factory, trying to make craft cool again. Bringing the younger generation into play.
Outside of your Spanish roots, where does Miista’s inspiration come from?
We keep hearing that it’s a difficult time to be in the UK, and it has hit us hard over the last few years. But I keep calling London my home, even though I split my time between Galicia and Alicante (the two regions in Spain where we manufacture clothing and shoes, in that order). London has always been at the forefront of subculture and so have the “Miistas.” I tend to take inspiration from activist attitudes and collectives or people who believe that doing the opposite thing is the only way forward. Since I moved to London in 2001, I have spent time with friends from all around the
world, and have been immersed in such varied conversations about music, cinema or politics. So, London tends to act as the epicenter of many universes.
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Since its inception, Miista has grown a global presence. Why is this important to you?
It has always felt that what connects the Miista woman across age, place, or background are the psychographics that define her. That includes values, opinions, attitudes, interests, lifestyles, mindset, and personality. Our woman is cerebral, cultural, and witty. She, or they, uses trends to their advantage. They’re not trying to be a follower and know how to make their wardrobe their own. Still, they are discerning in terms of price point. They make their own money and aren’t squandering it. When they spend, they need investment pieces in return. They make conscious purchases. They’re loyal and go back to things they like.
With that in mind, we make the effort to go and meet with them. We now have four stores (Paris, London, Barcelona, and New York) and organize sample sales or other events worldwide on almost a monthly basis, as an excuse to meet physically. We have done this for over a decade as an exercise to understand Miista from the eyes of those who judge it and decide whether we are worth becoming their go-to brand in this overly saturated premium brand landscape.
What have been some of your favorite areas to bring Miista to?
Berlin has a special place in my heart; the underground music scene does it for me, and it feels very straightforward to receive great feedback when we visit. People get the aesthetic language and the inspiration. But then you travel to places like Antwerp and Chicago, and we overwhelmingly feel that same acknowledgment.
How do you keep up with your community, and what is the importance of a social presence for a global brand like Miista?
Miista owes its meaningful conversations with the community we’ve had through the years. Whether in person or digitally, I can’t conceive losing that personal touch, yet it is very delicate to maintain as the brand grows. Now we have a role fully dedicated to this, while a few years ago it was still me who was personally answering everything. But I would confess I still do so sometimes. We keep the same approach towards opening our doors to the making process inside our factory. We show our community that we do not have anything to hide. We feel proud of our making process, and that keeps our community coming back to watch the making process through our social media.
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You just opened your first store in New York in a pretty iconic way. What can you tell us about that?
We did the opposite of what everyone advised us to do from the beginning, and now we’ve just done it again. Pablo, my brother and business partner, moved to the States a few months ago, directly liaising with contractors, and suppliers, and personally managing the project. We wanted it to feel very personal, even though it’s a space in this hyper-transactional city. The upside is how proud we are to have done it and all the lessons learned along the way. We won’t ever be this brand where everything feels like machines or AI are in charge. The downside is that there is still so much more to learn and details to look after.
During the process of the refurnishing of the space, we heard the conversations from our community and how split the country is. How upset our community was. We felt that being Miista, we needed to give our space back to the community, so we set up a rage room inviting our community to transform their rage into positive energy, breaking everything there was in the space before we rebuilt it for the opening. It was one of the most special community moments we’ve had for a while.
What can you tell us about the concept of collaborations? Is that something Miista is interested in?
We have always understood collaboration from the inside out. Meaning: it’s how we make each collection come to life. It’s first a relationship between design and craftsmanship, then a collective effort between our creative team and the creative crowd that becomes an extension of the brand when working on projects together. These tend to be related to content or experience. We’re still to come the day that we get to invite home someone to design together, even though through the years we have had the privilege to have the most exciting conversations with fellow designers. It’s not a closed door if that makes sense?
Who would be on your dream list of collaborations?
As a designer that started with shoes, it would be exciting to see ourselves going into a collaboration with streetwear labels like Salomon, or Carhartt, with a possibility of full looks, but especially footwear collaborations.
Finally, what’s next for Miista?
We are extremely excited about New York, being physically overseas. We want to create quality experiences with the community that has supported us through the years, while at the same time figuring out our way to logistically avoid Miista filling planes that cross the sky from our operations base in Europe. We are going to keep producing regionally, investing in the artisans who make all the intricately Miista products come to life, and committed to cutting down our supply chain, as much as possible as an independent business can. Improving our motto of a short supply chain, while still having fun through our design process.
