An idea appears and I need to see it exist. And if I then see it worn by someone else, it all makes sense.
Before the dresses, there was colour.
I’m Gema Sánchez, designer and creator of Mia Moll.
I’ve always loved designing. Colour, order, geometry, finding harmony between shapes that, at first sight, have no reason to work together. For a long time I carried that restlessness from one place to another: I started with illustration and graphic design, made stationery and small handmade pieces, experimented with materials and fabrics… until one day I realised that what really excited me was much simpler to say: I wanted to be able to make my own clothes.
I began studying pattern-making and dressmaking with a huge desire to learn how to do it all. The first patterns came, the first fabrics and the first dresses. And that’s where the obsession began.
Suddenly I was thinking about clothes all day long. About a new design, how to resolve a shape, finding a particular fabric, a colour combination I had just imagined. I had found a way to bring together many of the things that had always fascinated me and turn them into something real.
Mia Moll was born from that need to make real what I have in my head. But also from something I discovered later, at my first small shows: the thrill of seeing my clothes on other people. Something that until then had been a drawing, a pattern and many hours of work started to have a life that was no longer only mine.
That’s why I decided to create my own brand and open my boutique in Murcia. A small, carefully thought-out space where I try to bring my world together: colour, blocks, geometry, symmetry, music and that sixties imagery that appears again and again in my work.
I design and make my clothes here, by hand, one by one. And the same thing still happens to me as when I made that first dress: an idea appears and I need to see it exist.
And if I then see it worn by someone else, it all makes sense.
Colour cut by hand, in Murcia.
I start with the fabrics
I spread them out on the table, mix colours and textures, move them around and look at them in different lights. I put them on, hold them, cross them over, use myself as a mannequin and keep trying.
Until, suddenly, I see it
This. This is it. Then I draw it and start building it. And there’s something almost magical about that moment, because when I really see it, I know it’s going to work.
Pattern, scissors and machine
Then come the pattern, the scissors and the sewing machine. Until what I saw becomes a garment. Designed, cut and sewn by hand in Murcia.
The boutique is at Trapería 36, in the centre of Murcia. You can drop in Thursday to Saturday, no appointment needed, to see the clothes, touch them and try them on. In the photos they’re worn by Mei, Alba and Amara, three digital models: they don’t exist; the clothes do.
How to look after your garment
I sewed this garment by hand and took care of every last detail. With these simple steps it will last you a long time.
Wash at 30 °C
Inside out, in cold water or 30 °C max, delicate cycle.
No bleach
Colour is the most important thing about the garment: no bleaching agents.
No tumble dryer
Gentle spin or none. Air dry on a hanger.
Gentle ironing
Inside out, at low temperature, with a cotton cloth in between.
Dry cleaning
Optional, at a professional cleaner, for interlined garments.