GATSBY MEETS GYPSY
“We’re trying to influence the influencers,” says Mimi Holaday, founder of her eponymous brand Halo Mimi. One of our favorite SXSW 2018 shops, Halo Mimi is a contemporary New Orleans-based hat shop featuring styles for both men and women.
After living and working in LA as a model, designer, and stylist, Mimi returned to NOLA and launched Halo Mimi in 2016. The almost two-year-old brand has already won several accolades, including Top Design and the Yelp People’s Choice award at the New Orleans Fashion Week Top Design Competition in 2017.
Mimi’s hats are a direct representation of her style, a self-described “classic glamour with a bohemian flair” look featuring ingenious and unusual material combinations. “When people ask me what’s my inspiration, I always go back to the phrase ‘Gatsby Meets Gypsy,'” she explains. “It’s this turn-of-the-century very classic, swing/jazz element that’s glamour but then there’s this bohemian that’s more toned-down, earthy, like fortune tellers, crystals, vagabonds.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh2bkPXnYvh/?taken-by=halomimi.label
As an industry veteran who has occupied many different roles in fashion–both in front of and behind the camera–she has developed and solidified both her style and a strong confidence in her choices.
She says, “It’s so funny when people ask about trends or, ‘Did you see so-and-so’s show at NYFW, did you see this that’s happening?’ I’m embarrassed to say I’m really not following the trends that much. Even though I get excited when I look at things I’ve made and see that they’re on-trend this year–that I’m ahead of the curve, or right on time–it definitely is reassuring but it’s not a part of my design process.”