The boss lady at Medlin Couture/Homes, Mimi Linda Yina, a celebrity stylist and style consultant has revealed that she started her business in 2009 much like a passion rather than true business but her fortune took flight about two years ago, thanks to the advent of social media, Instagram in particular.
She said what she had achieved in two years wouldn’t have been possible without the social media tool.
“I joke about it a lot with my best friend and say God bless the person that invented social media – in fact, Instagram to be precise.” And she keeps saying “yes this platform has helped my brand so much in a time when it seems like the country is in recession.
So Medlin has been there but with the power of social media, and in less than two years, the brand has become global. We cater to people far and wide. In fact, most of our clients are in the Diaspora, the whole world knows us courtesy of social media. We are selling out and clearing and cashing out on a daily basis on social media. I don’t want to call figures but we cash out on a daily basis and that’s because I make very good use of my platform for the right things,” she beamed in a chat with our reporter.
Reminiscing about how she started the Medlin Brand, Mimi said it wasn’t all about a great plan, it happened rather spontaneously from her passion about fashion and taste for classy couture.
She said: “It started years ago while I was in the university as a passion first because I loved fashion and then due to the fact I travelled out of the country quite often, my friends/course mates back then would admire my dress sense at school and requested I brought some back for them to shop; so after a couple of pressure from them, I yielded and then started with just a suitcase to see how it was. Behold, as soon as I arrived they would shop everything and I must say that gave me a motivation to continue. So, that’s how the famous Medlin brand started.
“I import goods from all parts of the world, everything fashion. I have a production house here in Nigeria where I produce our famous signature pants.
“I am a style consultant and stylist; I style people for their big days such as weddings, birthdays and events. I also style celebrities for their numerous red carpets and awards and day-to-day outings.
Mimi has styled top celebrities like AY, Funke Akindele, Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh and many others; they have all attested to the genius of her art.
“To be honest, it’s amazing how anybody sees a Medlin styling and they automatically know it’s Medlin. We know how to make a literal fashion statement. Baumgartner in you are what you wear – what your clothes reveal about you; we create a unique statement and classy styling for the classy woman and classy man. Keeping it classy and serene is my watchword. Also, we don’t the only style, we make all our clients realise the inner beauty in them and they get so emotional after their styling which shows we are doing something right. Yes, sure we might be at the peak of the ladder but then I try not to use that phrase because we keep aiming higher as high as the sky goes.”