Larissa Muehleder of the Muehleder label has seen her designs in Vogue, Glamour, InStyle, and People magazine. Her take on neoprene has captured the attention of over 100,000 women plus some Hollywood darlings, including Issa Rae, Zendaya, and Angela Simmons, who’s been a supporter since almost day one. Larissa, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, is of mixed race with roots in Vienna, Austria, and Nigeria. She’s an immigrant who shortly lived in Paris before her mother Margaret Muehleder relocated them to the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a child, frugality came naturally after recognizing that Goodwill was her Limited Too. Name brands weren’t an option in her household, and neither was work due to issues with her government work visa that had unfortunately expired while she was a student at The High School of Fashion Industries, where she learned how to sew.

These realities, plus an early introduction to entrepreneurship via her parents, birthed a love for design. To this day, her only job has been design, and it all started with her making custom clothing for Proms, Sweet Sixteens, and Bridal parties. After high school, she took her craft a step further when she decided to study Fashion Merchandising & Marketing at FIT. In 2014, after a few name changes, industry racism, and the hustle of getting her brand into consignment shops, wholesale showrooms, and retailers, she launched Muehleder. It’s been eight years, and the girl who found her confidence, community, and identity through fashion and style is only getting started.

I read that your earlier travels across the world as a five-year-old left a significant mark on you. Tell me more about these experiences and how you think they’ve shaped you today?

You know I come from polar opposites. My father is still in Vienna, and most of my mother’s family is in Nigeria. That distance allowed me to frequently visit both places to visit family. It’s like night and day in terms of where my families are located in their respective countries. On one end, there’s this old historic white country, and then on the opposite, there’s this country that’s rich in culture, but then you see the poorest of the poor. Being exposed to these two different realities through my family has kept me really grounded. When life gets hard, or I start to feel like I’m not good enough, I always take a step back and think about how slim the chances of me doing what I do for a living are.

You started out by designing Prom dresses. Did you envision the brand growing at the rate it has? 104,000 people following your brand on Instagram is no small feat.

It’s been eight years, and I feel like I just started, so it feels good to hear you say that. A guy I went to high school with, who I frequently run into throughout the city, stopped me one day at Dumbo House and said, “I’ve been meaning to tell you how great you are and how amazing it is to see you doing you I do.” Sometimes you forget to give yourself credit for how far you’ve come, and I love that he helped me take it all in. I’ve worked so hard to get here, and it’s still surreal to say out loud that “I make clothing,” and people actually buy it. Over two thousand orders a year! Little old me?! It’s kind of insane. I’m in the studio of my dreams right down the block from my alma mater and on the iconic Fifth avenue in New York City! I know 16-year old Larissa would be elated, but now I want to take my brand globally, so there’s a lot more work to be done.

What has the process been like? Let’s talk about some of the challenges, or perhaps you haven’t had many. What keeps you motivated?

I have to open my memory vault for this one because if you remember all of your challenges, they will weigh you down. I’ve pushed them to the back of my mind, honestly. It must be God because some things just worked out, and I know they must be blessings because how I’ve been able to have this brand, grow it, and experience success doesn’t make sense. With zero entrepreneurship or business experience, it doesn’t make sense. There have been many mistakes, for sure. It’s crazy to think people are out here just asking for money and receiving it from people to help fund their businesses. As a foreign minority, I had no idea that was a thing. I was raised on the logic that you get what you put in, so financing the company has been bootstrapped up until a year ago. I also had to stop chasing the stamp of approval from the industry.

When I started the brand, I was focused on getting into stores and being on celebrities but the wholesale margins were barely profitable, and stylists would hold pieces for months. I was losing money. It wasn’t until I started focusing on my clients and growing my audience through social media that I saw real success. As far as motivation, my clients keep me motivated. I listen to them via comments and product reviews and focus on what they want because they’re the ones spending their money, so they call the shots.

Your brand only uses neoprene when it comes to fabrics? Why? What’s the fascination?

We primarily use neoprene, not only! It’s definitely moved more in that direction since 2020 because it was the easiest for me to control especially due to shipping delays. Plus, my clients are obsessed! The why goes back to when I was going store to store trying to get boutiques to carry my brand. The man who introduced me to the wholesale space, Sam Desner at 3NY, saw a dress I was wearing and asked if I had made it because he would buy it. Of course, I said “yes,” but it was from Zara, truthfully. My intent wasn’t to copy, so I sourced a fabric that had high elasticity but also kept its shape well, which turned out to be neoprene. I first made it in three 3 colors, and he said it was amazing and kept buying it, so I then made it in seven more colors. After that, I created a collection based around the fabric and similar silhouettes and pitched it to a wholesale showroom, who picked it up and launched Muehleder into 25 stores nationwide.

Your newly introduced Eko swimwear collection? Tell me a bit about it, and what convinced you to create a swim line?

Neoprene is usually found in scuba diving suits, and when I think about its kind of ironic that it took me so long. I love the beach and the pool and wear a lot of swimwear. I was in Jamaica for the New Year, and here I was showing off this swimsuit from another brand; I thought about how I could be rocking my own line, so I created it. Swim is functional, and sometimes you just want a cute bikini, and making it out of neoprene makes it more durable. It’s also something quite playful about it. The Eko Swim Collection was designed to be transitional so they can be poolside earlier in the day and then once dry you sip cocktails with friends at the hotel bar with your heels on.

Are you the sole designer, or do you have a team in the background helping you with ideas?

I’ve had several assistants throughout the years, but it’s always just been a team of two. I have a marketing director, publicist, and we manufacture in midtown. When it comes to product development, I have always created my own patterns and samples from scratch.

What article of clothing do you love creating the most?

Anything with flare is fun for me because it’s interesting to manipulate the hemline. An untrained eye may not realize how much intricate detail it takes to make neoprene fall a certain way. You won’t really see it anywhere else because it’s something I started doing to develop a strong design aesthetic that’s easily recognizable as an original Muehleder piece.

Lastly, as a designer, what is the most satisfying aspect?

For me personally, it would be the freedom. I’m constantly reminding myself how free and lucky I am to do something I love. Yes, sometimes I’m working from 9am – 2am, but maybe I only worked three days that week, and there’s a balance in that. There is also a particular time of the year that come with restraints, but I know that I can be gone for three weeks when this period is over.

It’s also insane to see people value something of mine the same way they would if it was from Prada or Louis Vuitton. The way my clients react when something is sold out is out of this world. We’ve been cursed out many times via email or text before, and sometimes I just have to laugh at how hard people go, especially when they don’t know they caught me on the customer service phone that day, but I’m incredibly honored to affect these women in that way. It makes me happy to know I’m creating pieces that are helping women all over the world express themselves.

Web: www.muehleder.com

IG (Personal): @girlinthewhiteglasses

IG (Brand): @muehlederlabel