Pattern With MJ: Crafting Style, Storytelling, and Desires in LA
Designer, Entrepreneur, Storyteller
From the earliest moments of her childhood, Mandy Johal, professionally often called MJ, knew she was meant to create. She was at all times sketching designs, portray, and imagining new worlds—a basis for a profession outlined by storytelling, design, and considerate inventive expression.
MJ’s journey in style started in Vancouver, the place she constructed her research and artistic follow. It was additionally the place she first began Pattern With MJ (TWMJ)—initially a ardour venture, a small house to check concepts and experiment with design and storytelling. She beloved seeing ideas come to life from sketches to completed items, an expertise that formed her strategy to constructing a model and designing collections with intention, persona, and uncompromising high quality.
Her ambition quickly led her to London, the place she immersed herself in style by internships and collaborations with Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and KCD. These experiences provided a close-up view of how style works—from editorial and PR to luxurious branding and artistic technique— whereas emphasizing the significance of perspective, collaboration, and flexibility.
Mentorship performed an important function alongside the best way. Nan Richards, a revered determine within the style trade, holds a particular place in MJ’s journey and continues to encourage her work. “Having somebody imagine in your imaginative and prescient if you’re younger is priceless,” MJ displays. “It confirmed me not simply what I wished to create, however who I wished to be as a inventive.”
Even early on, MJ acknowledged that her work was larger than clothes alone. She thrives on the intersection of design, storytelling, and model imaginative and prescient, creating experiences that really feel private, cultural, and significant. Her first hands-on venture at London Style Week provided an immersive view of style in movement: seeing the runway come alive, understanding PR in motion, and watching a designer’s imaginative and prescient unfold in actual time.
Discovering Residence in Los Angeles
Transferring to Los Angeles to attend FIDM marked one other turning level. LA gave MJ the possibility to translate her imaginative and prescient into tangible initiatives and join with the folks and alternatives that would form her profession. “It’s about who you meet, who’s watching, and who believes in you,” she says.
Los Angeles has nurtured MJ right into a multidimensional inventive: designer, storyteller, and entrepreneur. The town’s challenges and alternatives taught her resilience, adaptability, and the worth of significant connections. She’s realized that even one thing so simple as gifting with out expectation can serendipitously construct relationships, open doorways, and mirror the guts of her model philosophy.
Constructing TWMJ: Style as Storytelling
MJ’s model, TWMJ, is rooted in her philosophy: style is a narrative to be skilled, shared, and felt. Each assortment displays her private experiences, life observations, and the power of a season or second. High quality and intention are on the coronary heart of every piece, with cautious consideration to craftsmanship guaranteeing that each design carries each that means and affect.
Her favourite creation so far is the Livin’ Assortment, a line that embodies expression, emotion, and the enjoyment of studying to dwell totally—values that outline each her work and her model.
Past design, MJ integrates digital technique, PR, and development forecasting, creating holistic experiences that interact audiences on a number of ranges. She shares her course of authentically, builds actual relationships, and designs for affect reasonably than development alone.
One of the vital symbolic parts of her model id is her faceless silhouette brand, inverted from her initials “MJ.” It displays her philosophy that the model is larger than herself—inviting others to see themselves within the designs and to expertise style as a shared story.
“Every assortment is sort of a chapter in a e book,” she explains. “Each design contributes to a bigger story I need folks to expertise.”
Mentorship, Collaboration, and Connection
Collaboration has formed MJ’s profession from the beginning. Working with Cartier, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and KCD refined her abilities and supplied perception into luxurious branding, editorial storytelling, and high-level occasion execution. These experiences bolstered her perception in mentorship and studying from established leaders whereas forging her personal path.
Gifting is central to MJ’s philosophy. By giving with out expectation—whether or not a chunk of her assortment, a be aware, or inventive assist—MJ has cultivated sudden connections which have led to significant alternatives. This follow displays the essence of TWMJ: generosity, authenticity, and storytelling by shared experiences.
MJ designs with intention, tells tales with objective, and builds manufacturers with authenticity, creating work that sits on the intersection of artistry and technique. Her imaginative and prescient positions her as each a thought chief and rising pressure in up to date style.
Wanting Forward: Imaginative and prescient and Affect
For MJ, style is greater than clothes—it’s a medium for connection, inspiration, and storytelling. By means of mentorship, collaborations with main style homes, and a grounded philosophy on gifting and relationships, MJ continues to form the narrative of contemporary style, one assortment, one story, and one design at a time.
“My aim is to create work that strikes folks, conjures up them, and leaves an enduring affect on the trade. Garments that make one really feel constructive,” MJ says.
As she appears to be like forward to her subsequent assortment and ongoing initiatives, MJ continues to mix artistry, intentional design, and private narrative, leaving her mark on each the Los Angeles style scene and the worldwide inventive panorama.
Choose items from TWMJ can be found to buy on-line, permitting folks to expertise MJ’s designs firsthand. www.trendwithmj.com.
Pictures: Dana Ferraro, Elisa Crowe