Malia Ujiki’s love and appreciation for fashion stems from her introduction by her parents, who welcomed her into the culture. This allowed Ujiki to understand and admire the process of creating clothes rather than just wearing them. 

Despite having parents who valued the concept, Ujiki did not spend very much time focused on clothing, fashion and style, as she had little interest in their values. When Ujiki was in the 8th grade, she felt inspired by peers to pay more attention to her style and use it as a way to express herself and connect with others. 

“It was a weird time where I didn’t care about what I wore until I started seeing other people, dressing differently, I guess you could say, and I was just trying to fit in. But then it turned into something that I really love. My dad was an influence too. He would take me along to clothing stores for his job and I would just go to look and see what everyone is selling,” said Ujiki

When Ujiki first started going along with her dad, she just wasn’t intrigued. As time went on, Ujiki began gaining an interest in his work and the art of making clothes.

“After I started enjoying it he would take me to the factories where lots of clothing gets made. That experience

was great [as] I didn’t know it could be that interesting. But the factories definitely aren’t, pretty or anything. I’m more interested in the design. It’s still good to know [about the factories]because it showed me how they’re [clothes] made, and now I can consider it for whatever I’d be making, like what you can actually do, because each factory is different,” said Ujiki. 

With Ujiki’s kindling passion and clothing style becoming an outlet for her, she began creating some of her own pieces, with the help of her father. 

“[My dad] is a fashion consultant, so he works for brands to help them with their designs, and then goes to the factories to get them made. Having seen that, I know I don’t want to follow that path because communication is very important, and if one person doesn’t do something, everything else gets messed up. But I’ve gotten my equipment from him. He knows how to sew and taught me how, he also has a lot of leftover denim and has connections to buy fabric from various stores,” said Ujiki.

Malia’s father, Derrek Ujiki, elaborated on his standpoint of his daughter’s fashion interests, sharing his inside perspective of the clothing industry.

“She’s into the whole fashion design world, and my philosophy is the more you know, the better a designer you can be. You’ll be a better designer if you know how to make a garment. And so I figured, it would be good to see where things are made, the people who make them, because they’re also, for me as a designer, part of the story,” said Ujiki.

Ujiki explains his methods of supporting Malia throughout her process of learning how to formulate clothing.

“I taught her what she wanted to know, she’s kind of picked it up all on her own. She is a very talented illustrator and is only getting better, I just kind of help her with little pointers here and there, but she’s pretty great with most of it, so when she wanted to start doing it more, I helped her a little, but she mostly was learning to do it all on her own,” said Ujiki.