Our upcoming 5-9 collection celebrates those who are pursuing their dreams in the off hours. In honor of this collection, I’ve been reflecting on the early days of Mixed.
I can trace it all back to a tiny seed of an idea that sparked one evening on the A train, commuting home from my job as a middle school teacher. I was flipping through a small, graphical book titled How to Spark Change. It wasn’t so much the words I remember, but the way it made me feel. That moment ignited my curiosity for graphic design.
The very next day, I downloaded Adobe and started tinkering. During my free periods at work, I’d create illustrations and posters with no clear purpose in mind other than satisfying my curiosity and my desire to learn and create. Eventually, graphic design led me to print design. Print design led me to textile design. Textile design led me to masks. And masks led me to clothing.
As Jobs' said in his famous commencement speech, "you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."
I think we need to take the pressure off the 5-9. Your 5-9 doesn’t have to be your next big idea or the business you’ll retire with. It can simply be something you’re drawn to—an activity that gives you energy rather than drains it. Something that excites you, even if you don’t know exactly where it’ll lead.
Start by lowering the stakes. Follow the thread of what interests you today. Do that thing. Do it until it leads you to something else. It’s simple in concept, but challenging in practice because you don’t know where you’re going or where you’ll end up. But creativity thrives in the unknown.
It doesn’t matter to me whether your 5-9 becomes wildly successful or if you’ve just taken the first step. I’m here cheering you on because what I see in everyone who begins this journey is someone with the courage to reach for more. You’re not only dreaming—you’re doing. You’re embracing uncertainty, making sacrifices, and charting your own path forward.
The earliest days of starting Mixed taught me to:
- Follow the thread.
- Be willing to make bad work.
- Iterate and improve.
- Persist.
- When feeling stuck, return to step 1.
And these lessons continue to apply. The 5-9 concept is alive and well in my life today. Nowadays, it’s not necessarily about pursuing a new career path; it’s about my own personal and creative development. I’ve always longed to paint on a large canvas, but I’ve always been terrified by it. And there aren’t many things that scare me. I see myself falling into the same old trap—being afraid of making bad work. But this collection is reigniting my desire to push beyond that fear and get back to painting.
The 5-9 is important because it’s about feeding that part of yourself that’s in need of attention. It’s about betting on yourself and doing the real work. It’s about honoring your creative journey, no matter where it leads.
I’m so excited to launch this collection next Sunday, and I hope you find a piece that inspires you to start—or continue—your own 5-9.
x
Nasrin