Two People,
One Eye
People expect the usual arrangement, the creative one and the business one, disagreeing productively. It is not that. We tend to reach the same conclusion about color, material and direction. What differs is the route.
From my mother, Mirella. She was a pianist, and the house was full of linen: sheets, cupboards, small embroidered cloths everywhere. Even under a jar of jam there was one, with the fruit stitched on it so you knew which jam it was.
It was never a material I chose for a brand. It was already my life.
The name was hers too. She had wanted to open a children's shop and she had already decided what to call it: MI RE LA, three notes, her own name taken apart. Then there were five of us, and she stayed with the family instead. The shop never opened.
Hospitality on Lake Garda. Hotels, then a large restaurant, so organization and attention to the guest were not theory at home. They were the day.
When I saw what Ilaria was making, the product was beautiful, but what struck me was that it was still made by actual people. The way she talked about it, and her relationship with the seamstress and the embroiderer, some of them working from their own homes. It felt like continuity rather than a supply chain.
The atmosphere of a room. I have to feel well in it.
When something is off. I feel it before I know what it is.
How seriously he takes things. And his taste, which is very quiet. Diego's taste does not make noise, and I think that is part of why this works.
Her sensitivity, and the fact that she is in a good mood most of the day. When she sees you there is almost always a smile in it, which is rarer than people think.
The products, and the linen napkins in particular. Material, gesture, detail: that is all her.
There would be no MI RE LA without her. She made it.
The technology and everything digital, obviously. Though he has become much more creative than he was, so by now it is genuinely teamwork.
Without him we would lose the technical side, and something aesthetic too.
Because he noticed how much people have never had the chance to learn. Materials, traditions, etiquette, Italian stories. He thinks they should be able to know more if they want to.
I did not want a site that only talks about product. Italy, places that are still not well known, the stories behind the motifs, how a table actually works.
And the research is the part I enjoy most. Small problems that can be solved.
Industrial. We were asked once to produce in industrial quantities, for Saint-Tropez, and I said no.
If I do not want something to happen, I make sure it does not happen.
The same, from the other direction. I do not want to lose contact with the people who make the pieces.
I think we already have. What we have built is a beautiful result, and seeing it grow reminds me of that every day.
I thought it once, when the shop went online and everything worked. A small milestone.
Then the real part started.
One of us thinks we have arrived. The other keeps seeing the next step. This is the only thing we genuinely disagree about.
Rapid Fire
Asked separately, without explaining.
Asked separately, they chose the same mountains, the same mornings, the same linen, the same country and the same dinner at home. Apparently the shared eye extends further than the work.
One Word for MI RE LA
Ilaria.
My mother.
Which is the whole thing, in the right order. Mirella chose the name for a shop she never got to open. Her daughter opened a different one and used it.
Who is behind MI RE LA?
Ilaria, who created the brand and ran it from markets and pop-ups before it was a company, and Diego, who came from hospitality and built the online side. Ilaria is based in Miami and handles the making, the wholesale and the relationships with the artisans. Diego divides his time between Miami, Italy and Dubai, and handles e-commerce, content and everything digital.
Where does the name MI RE LA come from?
Mi, re and la are three notes on a keyboard, and together they spell Mirella: Ilaria's mother, who was a pianist. She chose the name herself, for a children's shop she intended to open and never did, having five children instead. Her daughter used it decades later for something else.
Why did MI RE LA choose linen?
It was not chosen. Ilaria grew up with linen through her mother, in a house where it was in every cupboard, and has lived in it ever since. The brand started from a material that was already part of daily life rather than selected for a business.
Does MI RE LA produce industrially?
No. An offer to produce in industrial quantities for Saint-Tropez was turned down. The collections stay small enough that both founders know who makes each piece.