The Beginning
My name is Rute Vieira. I am the founder of Mihi®️.
The brand was created with the love and compassion I needed to give myself and that I want to share with other women who also had to go through the same difficulties of breast cancer.
I was 36 years old when I was diagnosed which was followed by a mastectomy. Since then, over the past 10 years, I have been using protheses to disguise the asymmetry of my body.
When I first had to buy a swimsuit after the mastectomy, I quickly realised that the available offer online is neither modern, nor easily accessible. Seeing all my fellow younger women in the BC community, and the limited number of products on the market, I was disappointed, but it also gave me an inspiration.
Myself and my husband, who was there for me all along and encouraged me to create this brand, we started to draw up ideas in mind and on paper keeping this statement in heart: “We, all women, need to feel comfortable and fresh in our own skin”. That’s how Mihi®️ was born.
2019
After a long period of time working alone on the Mihi®️ collection - which primarily met my own needs - I felt the need to involve other women with similar personal experience, who could contribute to the evolution of the brand. The idea was to listen to different perspectives to enrich the final product. After all each of us is different, with individual needs and expectations.
It was during this process that, in 2019 I met Ana Bee, a creative professional at the IPO in Porto, who also had breast cancer with a unilateral mastectomy. We quickly realized that we felt the same difficulties, while buying clothes suitable for our new condition. Ana joined the team, rolled up her sleeves and started collaborating with Mihi on several fronts.