NAME: Sarah Joy Hood

LOCATION: Austin, TX

BRAND NAME: Mystic Mayhem

Mystic Mayhem - image 1 - student project

MISSION STATEMENT

“Mystic Mayhem strives to create one-of-a-kind and unique fashions, and to promote the DIY lifestyle by providing the tools to empower, educate, and inspire our customers to become their own designer.”

Mystic Mayhem - image 2 - student project

WHAT IS MYSTIC MAYHEM?

We here at Mystic Mayhem revel in our individuality and love to make one-of-a-kind pieces for everyone from rock stars to teenagers. DIY is a passion we’ve turned into a business by working on our own hand made items as well as patches, pins, and more to help our customers take on DIY themselves.

But whats our style, you ask? Well, after years of trying to identify ourselves within a genre, we figured “Who wants to fit in anyway?!” and created our own! By combining all of our interests from punk and hardcore, hip-hop, kawaii, and even internet memes and emojis we’ve created our own little spot in the sun where we can be ourselves. And by accepting everyone and everything, we offer a great selection for every fashionista.

Love our style, but want to be more involved in the process? We specialize in custom orders, too! We understand the struggle of finding something in the store that could be you're new go-to staple, but if only it came in a different color, or fit just a little more snug, or was a few inches longer. We all come in different shapes and sizes, so we can't expect corporations to design around every body type out there. Because all of our pieces are hand made regardless, it's easy for us to work with you to make something thats absolutely perfect and made just for you. Together we can find the perfect vest as a canvas and pick out the desired details to fit your exact taste. With just a few inspirational ideas we can make a vest that is your dream come true!

Not only do we design DIY vests and jackets, but we also make smaller pieces like pins and patches so you can make your own! Maybe you appreciate the Mystic Mayhem style, but don’t necessarily want to rock a head to toe studded vest day to day. Now you can grab some small flare and DIY your own items! We love encouraging our customers to be creative and make things on their own, and by providing stellar ingredients and DIY tutorials on our blog you’ll have everything you need to do it yourself!

Mystic Mayhem - image 3 - student project

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Battling my multi faceted personality, I’ve struggled my entire life with finding my true identity with such an array of interests. My closet embodied my daily identity crisis as one day i’d rock head to toe black wearing band t-shirts and vans, and the next day i’d look like a kawaii raver with insanely bright colors, prints, and platform shoes. It’s been impossible for me to stick with a style, as I refuse to let go of all of my inner personas. This has always left me feeling like I never truly belonged to any group, always floating among the scenes with no place to call home.

Living in New York I led a double life with my bright and dark sides. During the day I worked with an electro ice cream truck company where we sold vintage toys, retro candy and foreign popsicles. We rode around in a pink truck and spread the joy around. But at night after parking the ice cream truck and closing up for the day, I worked for a heavy bass record label Trouble & Bass where we threw underground basement parties with electronic artists that lasted till 5 am.

Opposite in style, they both reflect my love for strong aesthetics whether it be a neon pink mobile food truck or a dark, goth, sweat inducing party scene. So finally instead of fighting my different sides, I decided to let them run free and to merge them together by combining all of my interests into one fashion statement. And with my passion for punk and hardcore music, I turned my traditional DIY punk vests into works of art featuring not just the average spikes and studs, but sequins, glitter and more. I've always felt out of place when I went to local hardcore shows, being the only person not wearing black. But I decided to embrace my love for bright colors with my love for DIY jackets, and created Mystic Mayhem.

So to all of you out there who don't feel like you fit into one scene or another, why would you want to? Create your own unique identity with everything you love!

Mystic Mayhem - image 4 - student project

NAME

The name “Mystic Mayhem” was inspired by the pastel-goth trend which in a way embodied Mystic Mayhems style. It was cutesy graphics with dark undertones, combing two opposite aesthetics into one. By making things that are kawaii and pastel colored with goth and internet/technology influenced messaging a new genre was created that contained multiple genres in one. The idea of the name “Mystic Mayhem” followed this same ideal of something that is cute but mysterious and adding some chaos to the mix.

Although my style has progressed and matured since I originally started, I feel the name still fits and is an accurate representation of the current brand. I was concerned with naming something that was inspired by a trend, as all trends eventually pass, but I took the trend more as an inspiration rather than a title. I wasn’t defining myself by the trend itself. So even though the “pastel goth” trend is over and my style is different, the idea is still the same behind the name. The meshing of two different characters to create a new class.

Mystic Mayhem - image 5 - student project

SLOGAN

“DIY for everyone.”

Mystic Mayhem - image 6 - student project

STYLE GUIDE

After a recent rebrand, I created this style guide as a general focus before creating a more specific set of brand guidelines. This includes the logo, alternate version, sub mark, color palette, fonts, inspirations, and patterns and prints.

Mystic Mayhem - image 7 - student project

MY MARKET/CONSUMERS

I’ve had some trouble in the past defining my user base, since I offer such a variety of styles. I created 3 different user personas, who are my main customers to focus on.

FASHION ROCKER

The fashion rocker is youthful, but could be a superstar at any age. She is a strong, vocal, personality who appreciates attention to detail and unique designs. She wears her vest as a statement piece to the club, at a performance, or just on the streets of her neighborhood. As an avid shopper, she fully recognizes the cost of completely one of a kind clothing and doesn’t bat an eye at the price tag. She isn’t afraid to show off her bold style, and is likely decked out in designer and vintage pieces.

TUMBLR TEEN

A Tumblr Teen is glued to the internet and is up to date with every digital fashion trend and meme. She is sassy, but vulnerable since she is probably between 14-20 and can be difficult to work with as she’s young and inexperienced with working collaboratively. She’s heavily influenced by popular bloggers or Instagram celebrities, and would do anything to dress like her role models. Unfortunately the price tag for most of the pieces she loves are far out of her price range, and is most likely at the mercy of her parents budget or her part time job. She loves crazy, weird trends and is loud and proud, but trends and her taste are fickle and come and go quickly.

OG PUNK ROCKER

The Punk Rocker comes from a music background, and is the originator of the DIY vest. Some might look down on the “bastardization” of the art form when they see a pink sequin “punk” vest, but most will appreciate the art and welcome to creativity behind it. After all, being punk is all about going against the norm. I’m also very cautious when using any music related pin/patch with my designs, as I don’t agree with representing music that you don’t specifically listen to or promoting “posers.” They are experienced in DIYing themselves, so they won’t ever question the time spent on a piece and they understand the limitations and possibilities when making one. They prefer the more adorned pieces with heavier amounts of metal and more coverage with patches and pins, and usually gravitate towards the color black and darker themes.

Mystic Mayhem - image 8 - student project

THEME/CONCEPT FOR COLLECTION

Im currently working further defining my brand, although it's been a long process, I am constantly exploring new options and my taste is evolving. Since the majority of my work takes several weeks at a time to create, it's hard for me to plan a cohesive "collection" as I try to work with what materials I have on a budget, and often my tastes and ideas change in the months it takes to work only a few pieces.

Ideally in the future i’ll be able to work faster with employees, and find ways to stud and spike significantly faster with equipment (right now its all done by hand with an awl and some pliers.) But until then, you can check out some of my look books from previous “collections” on my website here: http://www.mysticmayhemdesigns.com/look-books

Sarah Hood

4

1