Melody May “Mimi” Parrel-Pimentel is young, hardworking, and self-sufficient – the quintessential woman of combined talent and success. It comes as little surprise that drones of women admire and emulate her, some have even fashioned their career paths along her footsteps.
But contrary to the idea of a charmed life filled with satin ease and rosy comfort, Mimi struggled through a myriad of challenges, each one more staggering than the other, and everything much too complicated for an easy solution or complacent attitude. When others might have buckled under the pressure, she doubled her efforts, freed her inhibitions and stuck to her dream – to hem, prick, and sew the shimmering fabrics of her talent and imagination. Certainly her attempts have long become a lucrative enterprise, proof that she has indeed beat the odds while stitching her own success story.
As a young girl, she would spend time assisting in her family’s construction business at Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City where her aunt’s dress shop was situated alongside. It was in this setting that she found herself working on her design sketches more for fun than for developing a serious career option. Her aunt noticed her attempts and enthusiasm and encouraged her to develop her burgeoning talent. Her parents have likewise recognized her potential and offered strong support. Consequently, they sent her to Madonna School of Fashion and Design in Ayala, Makati City, Metro Manila from 1992 to 1994, where she studied and pursued her designing aspirations.
After graduating, she worked as a designer for her aunt Jesse Sia, an already renowned fashion designer in the area. For three and a half years Mimi put into reality all the complex and intricate details of fashion that she learned in school. She developed her skills into an art form at the same time, becoming savvy with the managerial aspect of the business. It was not long when she was finally able to complement her artistic sensibilities with their monetary equivalent. And when her aunt left the country, Mimi assumed the responsibilities and took on the business, ripe, burning, and ready to fly.
In 1997, she established the Mimi Pimentel Boutique and Dress Shop, confident in her independence and honed skills, anticipating difficulties but believing in her ultimate success. She started in a small, crummy space with a single mannequin and old sewing machines scattered around. Not allowing this minor detail to distract her from her goal, she conscientiously attended to her clients – treating each one uniquely, with specific needs attended to as individually special and different from each. This careful attention to details and high regard for individual sensibilities has earned Mimi the confidence and admiration of loyal clientele who has spread the good word around, making Mimi’s work a topic of interest and conversation for many in the years yet to come.
Refusing to sit on her laurels, she would regularly assess her skills and improve on them. To this day, she continues to attend fashion trainings and conferences here in the Philippines and abroad, constantly updating herself with the latest fashion trends and designs. She also enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology, a premier fashion school in New York, where she learned to anticipate design trends and fabric orientation.
To balance her productive lifestyle, Mimi has offered her time to socio-civic causes and has been a long-time member of JCI Bai Lawanen- a local chapter of a Worldwide Federation of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs, Junior Chamber International Philippines (popularly known as Jaycees). She held various positions within the chapter, most recent of which is the Vice Presidency of the chapter’s sector for Business Development.
Formerly, the Senator Ramon Magsaysay Foundation awarded Mimi the “Best Female Entrepreneur in Region 10”. Without a doubt, this will only be the first among a string of awards that she is expected to receive in her lifetime as a successful designer. The legacy of Mimi, with one mannequin in tow and now becoming practically a household name all over Mindanao, is a testament that indeed, talent and hard work makes the average fellow extraordinary. It is everyone’s hope that Mimi continues to weave a tapestry of awe and inspiration among many people and aspire for more beauty, more success, and more glorious creations.
