Meet Amanda Cil & Mercy Arias | Designers & Founders of Ms.Cil Designs

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Cil & Mercy Arias and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda Cil &, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Our business was definitely a pandemic business. More than a thought it was born from a feeling. Ms.Cil Designs was born out of love. We love to handmade and to personalize clothing items and accessories. It took us a long time to finally open it to the public and just like in any business we were scared of what people would think and how would they receive it. Our launch took us some time. We wanted everything to be perfect. Our main goal was to take affordable clothing items and accessories to families like ours. Our niche in the market is families that are celebrating their little ones’ birthdays.Custom birthday shirts are a staple for any kid. Bringing them to life and seeing how happy entire families get leave us speechless every time. Although we feel like this is just the beginning we continue to launch new items and brainstorm for designs too. As a mother-daughter duo, we want to continue to bring happiness to others and enjoy their smiles. We still have several projects to develop, and we can only hope that our clients love them as much as we love making them.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Our creations are based on conjoined effort, patience, creativity, and love. We love to keep in mind that everyone has a different personality, likes and necessities; and these are never going to be the same. We love for people to be unapologetically themselves and that they have the right to express it, that’s why we make sure to have designs for all people. We are a mother-daughter duo like we mentioned previously. Yet, the creative mastermind is Mercy (mom). Her specialty is hair bows for girls. From designing the fabric to cutting it and ultimately assembling them. My mom creates hair bows like a musician creates music, so effortlessly. Each pair is made with love and lots of patience. She likes to say that she’s a frustrated artist because she loves almost all types of art and just now, after the pandemic, she’s had the chance to create with her own hands our products giving a unique personality to each.

We love to believe that what sets us apart from others is our transparency, modesty, and professionalism when we interact with our clients. We treat our clients with respect and kindness so we can create together a design that makes justice to the ideas they bring. We are beyond proud of the acceptance and support we’ve had so far. We know that in the arts in general creativity is infinite, no piece will ever be the same as a piece from another artist. Because each artist’s mind is a different world.

For us specifically, the road has had some little bumps along the way. When we decided to start the business, it was very scary. There is a lot of competition and the uncertainty of not knowing if people were going to like what we had to offer and that delayed the entire process of sharing our products with the world. We had to learn new skills and learn how to properly use new materials. We are talking about months of learning and developing new techniques to bring the best products we could. We are seeing results already which eases our tension a little bit. There’s a lot of people that focus only on the results, but we understand that the process to get to said results is equally important.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Miami is such a beautiful place with so much culture, art and sazón. We will definitely start with our incredible and blue beaches to relax and forget about the heat for a minute. We also would keep Wynwood and the Design District in our little itinerary to take in some of the art and capture some amazing pictures for social media. The Floral Escape is also another of our stops to capture more pictures (*wink*) For food definitely La Carreta for some cuban goodness and to finish and satisfy our sweet tooth we will definitely go to Sweet Melody.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would love to give recognition and credit to our family for being the backbone of every idea we ever had and for encouraging us to never give up. But also to our amazing clients for continuing to trust us and our vision. We are beyond blessed to have such amazing humans around us that inspire us to be the best version of ourselves which also reflects on our work. Thank you all a million times for believing in us.

Website: https://www.amandacilphotos.com/mscildesigns

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ms.cil_designs/

Other: Email: ms.cildesigns@gmail.com