We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meng Fei Lin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Meng Fei thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I wish to start my creative career later!
Meng Fei, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi for those who don’t know about me, my name is Meng Fei Lin and I’m a fashion designer. I am from China and currently based in Eau Claire and Minneapolis.I was graduated from University of Stout and majored in Apparel Design and Development. During the school year, I did my first internship with Shein X program, I am one of their Shein X designers and I designed two collections within total 28 pieces and named the brand called Meng Fei Lin. In order to save money to develop my brand, I went to Florida to work as a waiter for half a year right after graduation. After that, I received an invitation from Mao, the organizer of Coalesce, to participate in their Spring 2023 show called Voices. This is also my first time to appear on stage with my brand “Meng Fei Lin” in front of the public! On this September 2023, I did my second fashion show in New York with Asian NYFW groups. I created a whole line about 10 outfits for this show and with a New Morden Chinese style theme. It was a great experience to me! About my brand, The concept is centered around women’s self-awakening and its new visual image of new modern women. I hope that through the clothing I design, I can inspire women’s inner potential and inspire them to have cultural confidence and an awareness of self-importance. The core of the brand is “Don’t be defined by others, be your truest self”! The brand’s design inspiration is to combine five thousand years of Chinese aesthetics with Western fashion trend elements, using modern design to show the perspective and aesthetics of contemporary independent women. My inspiration comes from my understanding of Eastern and Western cultures. I like to have the courage to constantly try different styles and explore unknown areas to develop my own unique and personalized original Chinese style brand.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Since high school I started working at the restaurant to save money and prepare for the college, I was born in a Chinese family and my dad was a very strict and typical man in the family. He had more power to control me what to do in the future, but I was against him all the time and he always gave me the negative energy that destroyed my confidence. Although I had self-doubt and even mental collapse for a long time, I slowly turned this grief and anger into strength and regained my self-confidence. After that, I made a decision not to choose a university close to home but to choose a university a little further away from home and major in the major I wanted to study. What I am very proud of is that even without any financial support from my family, I successfully completed four years of college by relying on my own several part-time job and scholarships. And that’s the life lesson I learned from my father, be strong, be independent and be more confident!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to become an excellent fashion designer in the future, aiming to help women build self-confidence so that women can express themselves freely and confidently. I also want more people to know about Chinese culture, Chinese traditional costumes and elements, promote cultural spirit and build national self-confidence!
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Michelle Lee Jason Kwan Meng Fei Lin