From Shy Teen Mom to New York Fashion Week

but there should be one I see, that it was fashion and hair. I went in nervous, the confident. - But. - And I won first place.

- Mia Evans is a visionary, resilient purpose-driven entrepreneur and the founder of the luxury fashion brand Mia Marie. Through her work, she creates timeless pieces that empower women to walk with confidence, strength, and elegance while building a legacy rooted in purpose and impact.

- When I first started in this industry,

I entered not knowing a lot of things. So it made it kind of hard for me, but at the same time, interesting because I wanted to know. So I was able to just be my authentic self and just create what I felt I would love to wear.

I admire my mom. She was a lady that dressed pretty well. I wanted to be like her.

“- When you're creative, what minds that are you in?”

Are you free or you angry or you with purpose? [music playing] - It spans the goal. Like a super high school, entered in Elvis. [music playing]

- Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. - It's not over, I'm telling how we're-- - The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. - That's a sweet way.

It's awesome, I love it. - Oh, buddy. That's sensational, too. [music playing] - She covered with the way you said.

- Oh, it's about just not on the planet. - You can live your dreams. - Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast that women in power addition for Insight Success.

I am Regretiers. Joining us all the way from the West Coast is Mia Evans with Mia Marie. - What Mia Marie?

“- Yes, can you give us a-- first of all, how are you?”

And welcome to the East Coast. Welcome to Miami. - Well, thank you, and I'm fine. I'm actually wonderful, and I'm glad to be here. - Right on.

So what-- what are we going to learn about you in your episode? - Well, you're going to learn a little bit about who I am. You're going to learn about why I am. And what actually allowed me to know fashion was my thing, was my niche.

- Right on, yeah. I'm born and raised by me, but you were born in the West Coast. - I was born in West Coast. - Yeah, give us a little background. - Yeah, I love San Francisco.

San Francisco and I have fond memories, but you were born there. - Yes, sir. - What's it like being born in San Francisco? - Well, I can say it was very interesting. There were a lot of different nationalities,

a lot of friendly people.

I never really had a hard time, but you know,

you have your ups and your downs growing up as a kid, right? - Right on. - But I lived there until I was a teenager. - Oh, wow. And my mom and dad separated, so when that happened,

mom moved to the East Bay, which happened to be Oakland, California. And we stayed there short time before we landed in Hayward, California. We're still there. - Oh, right on.

Yeah, I remember a much my commute going driving out to San Matelle, and just being right there at the Custle Silicon Valley, Oakland, fond memories there as well. As a matter of fact, the Bay Bridge, the same architect, is building these massive arcs downtown Miami.

It's the same designers, we're just kind of cool. - Oh, wow. - On Artisan Heart, from Oakland, talk about what influenced you as a music, was a poetry, was it life, what was driving your artistry?

- I'm gonna say for me, it was a starter with mom. So at a very early age, I admired my mom. She was a lady that dressed pretty well. And I liked her style. And I have to say she is who inspired me.

And she also, how should I say? She also gave me a lot of, I guess, wanting at that makes sense. I wanted to be like her. She was so pretty.

And when she dressed, she was gorgeous. Like when I would watch her get dressed to go out,

or even if it was just a day out, my mom always,

I had it together.

“So I have to say, that's what my first inspiration came from.”

After that growing up as a young girl, I was into fashion on television. - Okay. - So basically I would literally watch TV shows, movies, and I noticed I paid more attention to what the lady had on, right?

So by the time I got to a pre-teen, I'm more now watching pageant shows. 'Cause back in those days, I guess I'm telling my age. But back in those days, there wasn't like fashion shows on TV, and then of course we didn't have internet.

So for me, it was pageant.

I was marginalized every time I would see a gorgeous gown come out. And I just, I don't know, that was a lot of inspiration too. And at that point, I really didn't know what my calling was, of course, was I'm so young.

I just knew that I really liked it. - Wow. - So you spoke about your mom dressing at a different caliber. Very much like my grandmother. My grandmother raised me very old fashion.

“She opened up how did your mom influence the way you dressed?”

My grandmother literally would dress me in little suits and ties, and that would be second grade. It'd be very embarrassing, of course, as a second grade, but now today I understand completely what she was instilling in me as even as a child.

- And I feel the same way, because from my understanding, when I was even very young, my mom kept me addresses. And so that went on up until, you know, teenage. So I was very conservative like mom, and will dressed, 'cause of course, mom dressed me.

- Oh yeah. - So I was the little girl that had the dress and the person that she was. - Oh yeah. - The master purse.

- Of course, a little bit.

- So, you know, I was always pretty,

and I was tease about it. It takes my aunt to talk about me. She said, while my cousins was outside playing in a dirt, making my pies, I was in a window watching them. - Well, I said that sounds like me.

- Yeah, you're just sitting there as judgemental. - I'm gonna do it right. - There he nails the dirty feet and still today. - How long, how much of that has carried over

“with your legacy and your family that you've brought with today?”

- I'm gonna say a lot of it, and that's because I had a good foundation. So, with it starting with my mom, and my dad was a good look or two, but starting with mom and having her as someone

that I can look at, and I don't know, I was just motivated by her presence. That makes sense. I really enjoyed watching my mother. And I don't know, I think that's just where it came from.

And even with me, I like to look a certain way. I won't walk out the door looking in kind of way. If I feel uncomfortable, I'm like, nope, this is not it. - Yeah, that's awesome that you embrace these avatars, as we like to call them.

To speak to folks, I don't quite understand what it feels like to dress a certain way, so you act as you're in a way, and depending on your mood and the what, how you reflect on other folks,

it actually correlates with your mind body and soul. - Right. - Talk about that connection.

- So basically, when you're in the mirror,

and you feel like you look good, you're gonna feel good, you know, and a lot of it comes from, you know, just having that deep inside, you know, looking at yourself and loving yourself

is very important. So when you go outside, you wanna look a certain way. - Sure. - You know, and you wanna be a walk-in to a room and say, you know, this is me and other people saying,

wow, who is that, you know? And that's just how I feel when it comes to that. - Right on. What's your day to day like today? What's your, what's your hustle?

What's your, what's your grind? - My grind. - Yeah. - It's like about your artwork. - My artwork.

- Okay, well, that is, I've been sketching for a very long time since a little girl. And so, sketching pretty much was a big thing for me. So I was, how should I say, self-taught. - Oh yeah, same here.

(laughing) - Self-taught. So, you know, I liked it and it worked. So the sketching was a big part. So I really enjoyed sketching.

I really enjoyed pattern making. So those are my two things that I really enjoyed doing. I feel like sewing takes a lot of time, but I still sew, but I rather pass it to my seller. (laughing)

But for the most part, it's just sketching. Be more creative. I like being creative. - Well, of course, when you're creative, what minds that are you in, are you free?

Are you angry or are you with purpose? - I'm definitely free and with purpose. And because I have a certain style, more of an elegant, sexy, but conservative at the same time. Allowing people to wonder who is that girl,

type of thing. - Sure. - You know, a certain style that I like. I like to think outside of the box.

So if it's something that I've never seen before,

I'm like, oops, that's it. We're going with that one, you know, and that's just how I've always been. Always been different. Always say it that I'm different, you know?

So it comes easy for me. And as we're because in my art, I can literally go to sleep and dream. - Well. - And I'll wake up and sketch.

That's how bad it is.

“- Well, I was gonna say that's how good it is.”

You're literally, you're literally, you're literally mad as festin'. (laughing) What do you see? And what, how is that download filter through what you think you're experiencing?

Where is this cosmic energy coming from? - My creative side, photo most part.

something, dream or something, sketch it, whatever.

“And say, yeah, I think you got something, you know what I mean?”

- For sure. - And then other times it's like, nah, that's not it, now I'm re racing, you know what I mean? So I'm picky, if I might say it. So it's like a certain kind of look for me.

I could say when I first started in this industry,

I entered not knowing a lot of things, right? So it made it kind of hard for me, but at the same time, interesting, because I wanted to know, right? So I was able to just be my authentic self

and just create what I felt I would love to wear. So basically, that's who I designed for. A woman like me, my size, I should say curves. - Sure. - I love designing for curvy women,

whether they're small or big. - Yeah, yeah. - That's my girl. And I'm that girl, right? So when I'm designing, I think about us.

And so it makes it very easy for me. - For sure. - When you speak about us and especially a curvy women or a curvy men, when you're designing, you are essentially, how does this work?

Are you like drawing by hand, or you speaking in a recorder? Or what is your design process? Walk us through your workshop? - I am designing by hand.

- I don't.

- I design by hand, and more basically,

division to the pencil and paper. - Yeah, yeah. - And then to the mock-up, or the sample to the runway. So that is my process. But I feel very comfortable in that industry

because like I said, with me being the artist that I am, it comes very natural. - For sure. - I found my niche. - How did you find this voice and be so confident?

I'm sure your mom played a big part in saying, believe in it, follow the voice, run forward, especially with the way she raised you. The reason why I ask is I'm sure, maybe you had a form to play with it,

but I've almost asserted like if you were raised by dentists, would you still feel like you had this urge to design and be an artist? - That's a good question. I think because it's so embedded,

it probably would be the same person because of my beliefs, you know what I mean? - Yeah, for sure. - And as long as I was raised

“with those same beliefs, then I think it would be the same.”

- Yeah, I feel like that I'm glad you landed on that 'cause that's kind of like why I was hoping you'd figure out, like you're definitely on a set path that goes way beyond even that the day you were born. Like we were on the journey but among the stars

and whatever divine energy source you believe in, it's very much out of art control, but also in art control. - That's right. - We catch my meeting.

- Right. - Speaking of control and power, why do you feel like you were cast to be a woman in power? - Hmm. And you know how to say this,

I was so excited when I got the news. - Right. - And I'm just gonna be very honest and say, I was just, I had a confident about me and my story that I just felt that you guys would love, you know?

- Absolutely. - And I have to say when Mike interviewed me, he had the literally stop and say, you know what, me, I need to call the numbers who's right now. Oh my, okay, it's all right.

So it made me feel really good to know that my story and well, I should say it touched him in a way where he felt like the world should hear about it. - Right on. - And I was very happy.

“I even cried, I think the Lord and I just said,”

this is it, I'm just gonna go ahead and go with the process. - Right on. Here you are. - And in our studio and Miami. - Yes.

- Let me ask this question again. What are we gonna learn about you in your episode? We're literally gonna stop here and walk down the spooky hall and film your episode. What will we learn?

- So you're gonna learn basically the mind of me and Mari. - Right on. - Yeah. - Let's talk about me and Mari. - Mm-hmm.

- Give us a quick preview into your brand, into your vision, into your north star. - Um. - Starting with the name. Where does the name come from?

- So the name comes from me. - Okay. - Long story short. My first name is Marquita. - Oh, right on.

- My middle name is Mia Marie. - Okay. - And I took the Mia Marie and came up with Mia Marie. - Got it, Mia Marie, got it. - Mia Marie.

- Yeah, yeah.

- My brother always called me fancy.

(laughing) - So I was like, okay, I guess this is where it comes from 'cause this is a French I guess, right? - Got it. - So I love it.

- Got it. - Mia Marie, I always like to say, I'm not regoutier as I'm regoutier. (laughing) - Exactly, exactly.

- Yeah, we're regoutier. - We're regoutier. (laughing) - All right. - Yeah, so how can folks find you follow you

- I'm digging five Mia on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

- Right on. - Under Mia Marie official. Right now, I'm running a 50K campaign. - Oh wow.

“- Yeah, so we're looking at getting that together”

and we're in pre-launch. - Right on. - It's going for it. - It's launch. So we're gonna see.

- Yeah. - Good for you. - Good for you for putting a number in front of the vision to equate the measurable impact that you're going to create. (laughing)

- Yes, I did it because I wanted to... - I should have said, I wanted to create that number to be able to come to women in power and to be able to walk the runway and fashionally in LA. - Right on.

- So that's the go.

“That's what the campaign is all about getting”

from women in power in Miami to LA Fashion Week. - Right on. I'm curious if you've learned of preview models in a good front of mine, but preview models you have heard no?

- Okay. - Usually when I say preview models, I get like, - Dr. Kirk. - Dr. Kirk is a good friend of mine. So I'll go, I'll just go run into him. - Okay, we, we, our villages are quite similar.

- Okay. - Speaking of villages and tribes, how is your tribe doing? Do you have employees, do you have a staff? Do you have a core team? - Well, I can say I started off with a team.

- Okay. - And this was when I first started me and Marie back in 2015. - Right on, you're married. - And me and Marie was born at a fashion show competition. - Really? - Which was weird

because I never heard of a fashion show competition.

But when I seen it, it was, it was fashion and hair. - Okay. - And so I entered. I went in, nervous, but confident. And I won first place. - Wow, very first time on a railway.

- And it was triggered, you're just like,

“- Oh. - And I think my surreal moment happened”

when the, the, the host of the show. She literally grabbed my hand and walked me to the runway 'cause I was on a state, no, she was like, no. She walked me out to the runway and the chairs that I got. You know, just the love that everyone was showing.

It just made that moment so real for me. It was literally like an outer body experience, which was great for me because it kind of made me tear up because I'm thinking, oh my God, like, this is it.

You know, I won first place in designs, hair, makeup and models.

- That's amazing. - So my mom said, I came to take all the trophies. - Oh yeah, you sweet, you peeked ideas. So you felt that, you felt that, that origin story, that transformation.

- Yeah. - What's the, like, for folks that have yet to feel it or, or about to feel it or have felt it? What advice can you give to these listeners? - I'm, don't fight it, yeah, allow it to happen.

Because if you're a determined and you have that ambition, it's gonna come, it's gonna happen. So just allow it, allow the process. - Right on. Gosh, I'm eager to learn more, especially with our connection

to the bay. Yeah, I guess that concludes our episode. The Beat, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a opening act to your interview. Okay. Yeah. We're living. We're gonna cut this now and we're gonna walk down this, this studio and film your episode. With that, that concludes another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast that women in power addition for insight success. This is me and I'm Ray and you all have a good night. [BLANK_AUDIO]