Maison Mikumo

For Tina Xia, her passion for fashion has always worked hand-in-hand with her artistic talents ever since she was little. Years later in 2022, she launched Maison Mikumo, a sustainable clothing brand that follows a "Paris meets Tokyo" style.

Maison Mikumo's Background and Core Values

Maison Mikumo was born during a period of time where I was questioning what I actually wanted to do in life and was starting to really embrace who I was as an artist. I was also at a point in my life where I was becoming more conscious as a consumer and wanted to start investing more into fewer, higher-quality items that I truly loved from brands I trusted to do the right thing. However, I found it hard to relate to most of the popular sustainable/ethical fashion brands out there, many of which tend to follow a more minimalist/boho aesthetic. Therefore, I wanted to create a brand that reflected both my identity as an Asian woman and my values as a conscious consumer: sustainability, ethical labor, timeless design, and transparency.

© 2023 Maison Mikumo | Tina Xia in the upcoming Sinclair Dress, estimated to release in early May 2023

Brand Style

I would describe the style of Maison Mikumo as “Paris meets Tokyo.” We draw inspiration from Japanese, Korean, and French style, as well as the “Academia” and “Cottagecore” aesthetics. Our goal is to design clothing that is feminine, elegant, wearable, and cute - but not “cutesy.”

“Slow Fashion”

Slow fashion is essentially the antithesis of fast fashion, which prioritizes and maximizes profits through the exploitation of the environment, animals, and human beings. Slow fashion instead prioritizes sustainable and ethical business practices throughout the supply chain and promotes awareness and respect for the living beings and processes that produce your clothing. In my opinion, if you’re privileged enough to even consider creating your own label, committing yourself to slow fashion principles is the least you can do considering where we are right now in terms of detrimental climate change. So for me, it was either do this right, or don’t do it at all. 

Some of the things I focus on with Maison Mikumo are researching and sourcing sustainability-forward materials, finding ethical manufacturing partners that ensure fair wages and a safe environment for their workers, producing in small quantities or made-on-demand where possible, and using sustainability-forward packaging. I’m also big on transparency, and I share a lot of my behind-the-scenes on social media and my blog in the hopes that people will become more aware of all the hard work that goes into making clothing.

© 2023 Maison Mikumo

© 2023 Maison Mikumo

Maison Mikumo and Sustainability 

When it comes to sourcing materials, there are two things I consider - what the material actually is made of, and what certifications and branding it has. But as any sustainable designer will tell you, there is no such thing as perfect sustainability, and even within the same type of fiber, there can be a huge range in how sustainable they actually are. Now, we are focusing more and more on certifications and more, as well as trustworthy, sustainable textiles brands that help to ensure that you’re getting the most sustainable options on the market. 

In terms of finding ethical labor, we spend a lot of time, energy, and resources on personally vetting production partners. We always try to conduct an in-person visit, where we personally evaluate the working environment and demand transparency around wages & benefits to ensure their workers are being fairly compensated.

To reduce waste, we simply don’t over-produce. We make our items in small batches and donate excess usable fabric to nonprofits like FabScrap or send unusable scraps to dedicated textile recycling centers. Additionally, some of our Made in USA knit items are zero-waste and made-to-order!

Ways to Avoid “Fast Fashion

If you’re a creative and expressive person with a particular taste in fashion, it can be really hard to achieve the look you want while avoiding fast fashion. There are some well-known alternatives to shopping fast fashion, investing in higher quality items, buying less frequently, and learning to repair or make your own clothing. I think, as consumers, it’s important to embrace a mentality of imperfect sustainability but cut yourself some slack if you need to. Big businesses are the ones who should be facing intense scrutiny and accountability, not some little guy who just wants to look cute!

Check out our latest issue to learn more in depth about Maison Mikumo and discover other sustainable related content!