Rock-Influenced Design: Mia Gyzander
Mia Gyzander has been involved in the fashion industry in one way or another for more than 20 years in her native Sweden as well as her new home, Los Angeles. After planning for three years, the designer is debuting her funky and colorful rock- and 1960s-influenced clothing for men and women in a unique mix of colors and materials.
Gyzander entered the fashion arena at 16 as a sales rep, store manager and eventually buyer for a retail outlet in Sweden. After working as a designer for three years, traveling Europe and Asia, she decided to make the move to Los Angeles to study design and tailoring at Otis College of Art and Design.
She found quick success in Los Angeles, landing a job as lead costumer for a show at the Universal Studios theme park.
“That was great and I was lucky,” she said. “I got to know vendors in Los Angeles and all the time I was there, I was working on my line.”
Gyzander worked on a number of films as costume designer and on music videos as wardrobe stylist and continued to work for Universal, creating costumes for debuting shows, while setting up her own design studio. Last year, she decided that it was time to make her dream of designing her own line come to fruition.
The Mia Gyzander collection from MG Design, Fashion & Costume, is very ’60s-influenced but done “with style as opposed to flower power,” said Gyzander.
“It’s colorful to make a statement, but it’s also casual and for going out, depending on how you mix the pieces,” she added.
The collection uses a lot of stretch fabrics—for comfort and for fit, according to Gyzander—including stretch denim and corduroy for the bottoms. Jackets are made from denim, corduroy and suede and trimmed in fur.
The designer employs the same materials and mixtures for both the men’s and women’s collections but uses colors differently for each.
“For guys, I use a lot of crazy prints, which are very rock star–influenced, since I work with a lot of musicians who wear my stuff,” she said.
Gyzander’s collection is preparing for launch this summer.
“We began approaching stores to test the line and this summer, we will do the MAGIC [International] show with our Spring 2003 line,” Gyzander said.
For more information, call (323) 939-3941.
