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ALL ABOUT THE NEW COLLECTION: Mundane Life & Baby Tees
over the past few months i've felt a lot of inspiration for not only millied, but the way i want to view life. on the surface level- these are tops i have created and love and sell to people who feel similarly... but i have always wanted millied to be more than that. millied is an outlet where i am able to mix my creativity, my dreams, my life goals, human connection, and a positive + motivating mindset, all while fostering constant inspiration. since starting with the four OG shirts i would sell on depop, i've found that everywhere i look is a chance to be inspired... music, for example! the beatopia cover by beabadoobee inspired the first shirt i ever made, the doodle tee, with child-like drawings. this led me to discover yoshitomo nara's & aya takano's art (which have both become some of the biggest inspirations for every collection). i find connections in birthday cards, restaraunt menus, random shirts at the thrift store, decorations in school classrooms, movies, books, my friends, my family, ~ everywhere! life is beautiful in all forms when i make it out to be that way.
for this collection, the source of the main inspiration came from the song "trees and flowers" by strawberry switchblade. along with the music itself, the song title stuck with me. i loved the mixture of so much nature in one phrase- trees, flowers, and strawberries. this inspired me to pick up a beautiful $12 bouquet from kroger, watch youtube tutorials on how to dry flowers, and get to work!
i wanted all of the shirts to revolve around the idea of what the phrase is- "trees and flowers by strawberry switchblade"- lots of nature and springtime and light feelings. but then i had more ideas from songs i liked and movies i've been watching... all of a sudden i had a bunch of random designs on my ipad that stemmed further and further away from just dried flowers and fruits. i somehow made them connect in my head- the "lamp" & "let the light in" tees represent the light that plants need to grow, while the "mazzy" tee represents the (star)light :') obviously, it's a bit of a reach in my head, but it's fun to make those connections !
i scrapped a lot of other ideas i had for some shirts that may come sometime in the future. i watched this studio ghibli film, only yesterday, that highlighted the (not so) unimportant parts of human life that are deeply special, perfectly worded in this reddit thread above. i experienced similar feelings while reading the idiot & either/or by elif batuman. i loved learning about the simple yet very complex thoughts and emotions that the main character had during her first two years of college in these books. being able to connect these films and books to a shirt is what makes millied that same outlet of all those things i mentioned previously.
this collection, at first only just very much inspired by trees and flowers, has grown into reflecting all of these small pieces of inspiration i've had over the past few months, especially representing the beauty of mundane life- the little things. whether i learned that through watching only yesterday (& all other studio ghibli movies), in elif batuman's beautifully written novels, in the songs i listen to or reddit threads i have stumbled upon, it one of the most important lessons i have ever learned and want to spread... even if it's through a simple shirt! the so called "unimportant" memories and thoughts we have in our lives- the flowers we walk across, the artists we enjoy listening to, and the fruits we eat- they all make us who we are; nothing in this life is unimportant. it is the little things, the little moments we feel are so small to ever share, are moments i hold the closest to my heart. there is so much beauty in the mundane.
on the surface, these are baby tees. but it has been the mundane parts of the process over the past year and a half that make millied so much more than that for me. thank you for not only buying a shirt, for being here, and for supporting me and this brand, but also for teaching me this beautiful life lesson that is finding so much more in a simple shirt. in the simple things in life.