Hi friends,
I got to meet and hang around with Larissa in Chinatown. I rolled up to her spot, drenched in sweat. I couldn't find her shop, so I skated around way more than necessary. Larissa was kind enough to meet up with me and let us to her spot. She was so mellow; I almost thought she was going to be really quiet! But she showed me a great time. I was surrounded by beautiful vibrant colors and fur coats most of the time, which is ever girl's dream.....right?! I also got to meet her awesome mom and turtles, which by the way, she should name haha
Below you can read a few questions we got around to. Get inside her brain' she's gr8!
Thanks again, Larissa. You are an inspiration to me and undoubtedly other woman in your life. Keep it up <3
I got to meet and hang around with Larissa in Chinatown. I rolled up to her spot, drenched in sweat. I couldn't find her shop, so I skated around way more than necessary. Larissa was kind enough to meet up with me and let us to her spot. She was so mellow; I almost thought she was going to be really quiet! But she showed me a great time. I was surrounded by beautiful vibrant colors and fur coats most of the time, which is ever girl's dream.....right?! I also got to meet her awesome mom and turtles, which by the way, she should name haha
Below you can read a few questions we got around to. Get inside her brain' she's gr8!
Thanks again, Larissa. You are an inspiration to me and undoubtedly other woman in your life. Keep it up <3
-Whom do we owe the pleasure? (Who are you? What do you do?)
Hey! I’m Larissa. I design and run my handmade clothing line + vintage clothing shop, Miracle Eye, with help from my amazing partner, my mom!
-What is your passion in life?
Art… All types of art! I love fashion, but not like current fashion or fashion-fashion. More like old clothing, and current clothing inspired by old clothing, haha. I love things people make with their hands. An instrument, a painting, music, shoes, anything handmade makes my heart swell. I also love collecting records, those things are great! Who doesn’t love ‘em?
-Miracle Eye, tell us how that came about.
Oh gosh, this is a long story, but I’ll try and make it a fast and easy read, haha! Miracle Eye kind of came about because of a bunch other small businesses I ran in the past, and finally decided to just go for it and start my own clothing line when I put all the pieces together. Nothing was ever consciously leading up to it, nor did I ever think that’s what I’d do full-time for (probably) the rest of my days! I’ll give a run-down of every business I ran before I created Miracle Eye.
At 6 years old, I began my first “business endeavor” by running a nail salon from home, with my only customers being my parent’s friends that would come over to catch up with them. I’d annoy and force these extremely kind and patient “customers” of mine to allow me to paint their nails for 15 cents per hand, or 25 cents for both hands. I’d do little flower designs, basic coats, whatever they wanted, for a quarter! I loved making my own money, it gave me this rush nothing else compared to (oh jeez this sounds like I’m making a drug reference… I’m not! Haha).
After doing this for a year or so, I made enough money to invest in wholesale packs of Rebelde (this is a Spanish soap opera, was super popular at the time) and Spongebob chiclet gums (totally bootleg/not licensed, by the way, haha). Those packs ran at $10 each for 100 units. I bought one box of each, and sold the gum units for 35 cents each or two for 50 cents. I did this all throughout elementary school… Loved it so much, and everyone in our apartment building/block knew I was the girl to go to for gum! Running these two businesses was a great stepping stone for the later things I’d go on to do. Who knew you could learn so much from selling gum!?
Later on at 10 years-old, a family friend introduced me to eBay and the business of selling online. I was completely mind-blown… Like, what?? People buy things online? That’s insane. I couldn’t believe it. I ended up creating an eBay account and listed this vintage cherry-embossed glass vase for $10 + $2 shipping, which apparently was a family heirloom on my mother’s side, and I selfishly thought it was “weird looking” and assumed no one wanted it… Haha! I had no idea what shipping charge stood for, nor what that really meant. I assumed it was like a tax, or something. Logical, right? Haha. It sold within 3 days, and I bubble-wrapped that thing at least 30 times around. I had my dad go to the post office and let him know I’d pay him back whatever the shipping fee was. He comes home that day and hands me a $28 shipping receipt. At that point on, I learned what shipping meant, and taught myself how to calculate shipping fees since I’d never let that happen to me again! I started selling thrifted clothing/home decor for about 2-3 more years throughout all of middle school, and then discovered Etsy, to which I had transferred my online shop to.
After doing Etsy for a year, selling exclusively vintage and vintage-renewed, I began to design my own garments for myself originally, and asked my mother, who just happens to be a magician seamstress, to sew them up for me. The fabric district was essentially my backyard growing up, and my mother had been a seamstress all her life, so all my childhood, our apartment was filled with fabric rolls, industrial sewing machines, and threads all throughout our carpet. I ended up realizing I LOVED designing so much, way more than picking out vintage, and put the pieces together to create my own clothing line. Once the idea came into my brain, it all made so much sense. Everything in my life had been essentially leading up to this moment, and I never knew! Once I graduated high school, Miracle Eye was already well-established online, and my mother and I were making enough a month to pay rent + food + business materials. Then a few months after graduating, I leased out a space in funky little Chinatown to use as our production studio/photoshoot space/retail spot. 2.5 years later, here we are now :)
-What's your latest favorite memory?
Yesterday, I drove around exploring Laurel Canyon shooting a new lookbook with two friends. I had only ever driven through it to get somewhere else, but never stopped or explored, which is so weird since I’m from LA. A few minutes into driving through it, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was… So green and lush. I felt amazing energy beaming from the hills to us so intensely throughout the entire day. It was overwhelming at times, but in a really, magical way! I can’t really describe it… But one of the best days of my life, for sure. It was surreal to see my beautiful friend, Anna, wearing my art, and my other beautiful friend, Lauren, shooting her, in the craziest historic setting. Gives me butterflies just remembering it all!
-How do you face the challenge of balancing trends/originality? (If you do come across that.)
I totally pay attention and am aware of trends, I mean, they’re pretty hard to ignore because they kinda invade the internet. But I’m normally never inspired by them, and they don’t move me, or make my senses tingle, so I don’t even subconsciously incorporate them in my designing process or vintage hunting sprees. They kinda go in one ear and out the other, but vision-wise. My brain is already filled and overflowing with images from vintage magazines, films, blogs, and photographs. Not much room for current trends, haha.
-I'm interested in your thoughts on how women are portrayed and portray themselves on the internet, considering the role internet plays in this day in age.
Women are amazing! I love that it’s become cool to love yourself. I’m pro-selfie, although I can see how the pro-selfie thing can be misinterpreted — I’m basically pro everything that doesn’t hurt anyone else or cause harm to yourself long-term. Pro loving yourself so much that you think you’re cool and interesting enough to share photos of on the internet. That’s so cool. Society/media shoves really harmful unrealistic ideas of women on what they should like, demand for, and that they’re deemed worthy if they’re conventionally beautiful. That’s really, really horrible. As if women aren’t people who have minds of their own… It makes my brain hurt and heart ache. The internet, and mainly Instagram, has given women back some power on taking a stand on that and make a statement/fight back/be independent as hell.
-Does your living location influence your choices for your shop? How and why, do you think?
Yeah! Being born and raised in LA totally influences the kind of stuff I create and shop for! I was introduced to a bunch of styles early on, I think mostly because of being here in LA. It’s everywhere! Fashion capital, baby! Or wait, is that Paris? or New York? Hahaha.
-Anything we should keep our eyes peeled for?
We come out with new handmade designs on a monthly basis, but add new-to-you 1960’s + 1970’s vintage nearly daily online. The best way to keep up with us would be through Instagram :)