Karmen George’s dress designs take off🚀
Karmen George’s dress designs take off🚀
Micronesian Monday Feature: Nemin Boutique
Before the lockdown last year, Karmen Melsior George had just dropped the first collection of her clothing line for Nemin Boutique.
It sold out within an hour, Karmen said.
Karmen, 32, is the owner of Nemin Boutique, found online at neminboutique.com. Karmen explained to me1 that, “nemin” is the informal Chuukese word for girl or lady.
“‘Hey Nemin,’” is almost like saying, ‘hey chicka’ or ‘hey gal,’” she said.
Her shop is an array of eye-catching floral dresses and skirts for women and girls which have a modern take on traditional Micronesian dresses.
Many of Karmen’s dresses are maxi-length and feature a more open neckline. Some have off-the-shoulder details or a cinched waist. Her designs are flattering and conservative. Her choice of fabrics? Bold, contemporary and very much islander-approved.
In addition to dresses, Karmen has keychains with the word “Nemin” etched across them and T-shirts with the phrase “The Future is Nemin,” a Micronesian twist on the popular “The Future is Female” slogan tees which resurfaced in the past few years.
Karmen also sells skirts, blouses and tank tops. And she makes custom dresses for customers who have a specific fabric they want to use.
She is from the island of Chuuk and was born and raised on Guam.
She said she’s very happy she started her clothing line.
“The exciting part of my journey is customer feedback. Whether good or bad, each one is critical to helping me grow,” Karmen said. “I love the challenges, the risks, and stepping out…my comfort zone.”
She hopes one day to have her own physical store. Right now, she has her designs for sale on her website and it’s been doing well so far, she said.
Inspiration for the business came from Karmen’s daughter Sofia.
“My daughter Sofia is my inspiration. I want her to grow up and not have to reel into the negative stigma that’s portrayed on our fellow Micronesians— specifically Chuukese,” Karmen said.
“I want her to be bold with her ideas yet humble at hand. I want her to be creative. I want her to explore all possibilities of achieving greatness and never limiting them. Ultimately, my drive is that I want her and all our beautiful Micronesian girls and women to know that if I can do something that I love, you can too!”2
I was so glad when Karmen agreed to answer my questions because when I came across her page, I just had to find out more about the creative mind behind the clothing. Her work is mesmerizing to me.
I find her designs to be an equal blend of traditional Micronesian dresses with some contemporary flair. And I’m not the only one who admires her work.
Karmen’s Instagram profile3 features many customers happy with the gorgeous additions to their wardrobe courtesy of Nemin Boutique.
If you are looking for a bold new dress, I would recommend checking out @neminguam on Instagram. Definitely follow her account and visit her shop at neminboutique.com.
Just as I asked Shannen and Dennilynn in last week’s Micronesia Monday feature, I asked Karmen what other Micronesian creators or Micronesian businesses more people should know about and Karmen suggested:
MJ Sojo of The Tree Shop.
“Her products are over the top!” Karmen said of The Tree Shop.
I want to thank Karmen for her time. It was a pleasure to learn more about the beginnings of her business. As I’ve said before, I truly enjoy seeing Micronesians thriving in public.
If you enjoyed learning about Karmen’s business, share her page and her account with your friends and family. I’m sure some of them are looking to look good and use their stimulus checks4 to support local businesses.
In other news, unrelated to Karmen’s amazing dresses but something else I wanted to share:
Timelapse: Talofofo Bay erosion 😦
If you’re at your desk this Monday morning and were wondering, “What about the erosion at Talofofo Bay?” You, my friend, are not alone. I, too, wondered that.
Google launched Timelapse in Google Earth and basically, you can see satellite images over the past 30+ years5 of different parts of the planet.
I was curious about what changes were photographed of Guam and Micronesia. I saw a visible change in the shape of Talofofo Bay, which I, a Scientist6, attributed to erosion over the years.
If you check it out and see other notable time-lapse changes in the region, let me know. I tried to look at the Marshall Islands and Palau and Weno. I didn’t a lot of change, but perhaps I didn’t know where to look?
I hope you are trucking along this Monday. (Or Sunday for some of you!)
If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, feel free to share it with them.
Thank you for reading. Write to you again soon.
Cheers,
Jasmine
Karmen, ever so gracious, also educated me that the formal term for female in Chuukese is “Fefin” and girl is “nengin,” or in the outer islands, “shopwut” or “liera.” Liera sounds so pretty!!!!!
Hear, hear!!!
Can you tell that I spend an ungodly amount of time on Instagram?
How do we feel about “stimmy” as a shortened form of “stimulus checks”?
Please vote in my very official™️ poll.
Big Brother, WHO?
I’m not a scientist.