Temi Oni is a fashion entrepreneur, musician, and creative director from Maryland who created a maternity clothing brand called MSTREET. The mother of two often found herself looking for clothes that were both roomy and stylish.
Oni discussed what inspired the name of the clothing line and what she wanted women to take from it.
What inspired you to name your clothing line MSTREET?
A lot of people think because I’m based in Maryland, that it’s from M Street NW in D.C., but really, I just love the idea of streetwear mixed with chicness and the ability to just create your own address. The “M” in MSTREET is multifaceted. No pun intended, it means so many things. It’s motherhood, it [signifies] the motherland, kind of paying homage to my Nigerian roots, but also the fact that like when we’re giving birth, we are a motherland within ourselves. It’s mindfulness, I tried to sustainably source our materials, just making sure that we’re not overproducing, or that we’re not just making stuff just to make it but being mindful of what we’re putting into the environment, the world that we’re leaving for the babies we’re bringing to the Earth, as well as what we’re putting on our bodies. It’s a mood because you know, we always got to look good. It’s just so many things and I wanted it to mean something different to everyone. For me, those are my M’s. For some women, it might be music or movement, but [I] wanted to create something that was not one-dimensional and meant so many different things to different women.
How do you want women to feel when they are wearing MSTREET clothing?
First of all, I want them to feel good about themselves. One of the things I wanted to add was comfort, but also sexiness. I feel like sexiness can come off in so many different ways. It doesn’t always have to be the shortest or the most revealing. Sometimes, there’s a lot of sexiness in simplicity. For me, especially when your body is changing, when you’re pregnant, or when you just had a baby, it is such a vulnerable time. As a woman, you may not recognize yourself, you may feel like d—, what happened to me, and I want women to feel like themselves. I want them to feel beautiful. I want them to have fun. I think there’s this huge misconception that when you become a mom, your life is over, that you’re not allowed to do things anymore, you’re not allowed to have dreams and desires. I just feel like that’s such a dated perspective.
