When Mindy King offered to help her her sister, professional tennis player Vania King, design some dresses, she had no idea she’d be starting a tennis fashion business. Next Saturday, March 28, Mindy will launch her first-ever collection MINX at the Los Angeles Tennis Club complete with a fashion show featuring Vania modeling the dresses. King and her sisters are honorary members of the Los Angeles Tennis Club which is pleased to host the line’s launch and welcomes non-members to attend.
MINX is based on Mindy’s real-life experience in competing and playing tennis for over 20 years and her background as an architectural designer. The name pronounced “minks” is a play on her name and the logo reflects their last name “King” and the three sisters working together.
Tennis is the King family business. Mindy was recruited for tennis at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a BA in Architecture. She later went on to complete her Masters in Architecture at the University of Southern California. Vania, the youngest of the four tennis-playing siblings won both the 2010 Wimbledon Women’s Doubles and 2010 US Open Women’s Doubles titles with Kazakh partner Yaroslava Shvedova. Her brother Phillip was a four-time All-American at Duke University and two-time US junior champion and is now captain of the Hong Kong Davis Cup Team. Mindy’s twin sister Ivana. who also helps with marketing, played for Princeton University.
King started by designing what she likes to wear.
“I like to wear dresses, it’s one piece, easy, I’m in and out the door,” said King. “I started with dressed that I liked and modified them for tennis. I have cut the dresses a little longer, more sophisticated, more classy, so you can wear them wherever you go.”
Each piece is meant to be worn on and off the court, to and from business and play.
“We play with a lot of detail in the the pattern or the dress,” said King. “As an architect, it’s my personal touch.”
According to King, it all began as an experiment. Vania was being sponsored an Asian clothing manufacturer and she asked Mindy to design some dresses the sponsor would manufacture. “It was a good opportunity to understand and learn the manufacturing process,” said King.
Vania has worn the line the last three years and has been very supportive, giving up other sponsorship opportunities said King. So this year, she decided to take a leave from her job to start her own architecture practice and devote more time to the clothing business. King is now manufacturing the line in Los angeles so she can have more control over quality.
Everything is washable and all the material is recyclable polyester, a sustainable fabric.
“Vania has been wearing it in all her matches,” said King. “Like many players, Vania is very superstitious and she’ll wash it everyday so she can have the same dress for the entire tournament.”
“I have a really good support group,” said King. “I love learning and designing clothes or architecture, though clothing is more creative and more immediate, architecture is so long term.”
In 2014, MINX’s Athena dress was named one of the “Best Dressed” at the US Open.
Saturday, March 28th, 2015 4:00 pm-6:00 pmLos Angeles Tennis Club
Trunk Show starts at 4pm, with Cocktail Hour to follow.
Please RSVP by March 22nd to [email protected]
For more information, visit www.minx-clothing.com. All the items are made to order. Orders can be placed on the website.
