Marina - Develop Your Personal Style, Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes (Founder & Fashion Designer from Milan)

 

I’m not trying to push to become more successful in less time. I’m going at my own pace, designing quality clothing and examining peoples reaction on it, I try to be honest with myself and my followers by posting only designs that I like without any unnecessary hype.

1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.

Mélique Street is a fashion illustration and design project that I started in 2014 as an Instagram blog, since then I had a few collaborations with various brands, magazines and private clients.

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

At the very beginning I just wanted to create a separate Instagram page for my creations that don't fit my personal profile. I started from illustrating famous brands but since a few years I prefer concentrating on my own designs.

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?

I was working as a fashion designer in an office for a couple of years and it was quite challenging to quite it and to start a freelance career. There was a time of insecurity in the beginning but thanks to the free time I could work more and produce more quality contents, at the end it was the best decision I could make.

I was working as a fashion designer in an office for a couple of years and it was quite challenging to quite it and to start a freelance career. There was a time of insecurity in the beginning but thanks to the free time I could work more and produce more quality contents, at the end it was the best decision I could make.

4.What are some of the most important factors for running a successful fashion brand?

I’m not really an expert in that as I’m not trying to push to become more successful in less time. I’m going at my own pace, designing quality clothing and examining peoples reaction on it, I try to be honest with myself and my followers by posting only designs that I like without any unnecessary hype. I guess that’s one of the factors of the future success: to maintain good reputation from the beginning.

 5.What are your tips for first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Study more, look around, develop your personal style, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and to take risky decisions.

6. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

In today’s world there are many ways to show your work to the public and potential clients/investors without spending anything. If talking about my experience, I started my blog a few years ago and worked hard to develop my style, my aesthetics, you can go through it and see the evolution. In the beginning I was an absolutely unknown designer, now I receive business emails every day.

- Marina (Owner & Fashion Designer)

Marina Meliksetova is the head of the fashion illustration and design project Mélique Street based in Milan, Italy. She worked as a designer for Versace and started her own career 3 years ago. Since then she collaborated with various brands such as Tiffany&Co, Dsquared 2, Four Seasons hotels and others. Her illustration works were published in magazines likes Vogue Italia and L’Officiel NL.

- Interviewed By Kusum Kumari