27/07/2021
This story is a simple one. Like many others, and to no fault of her own, Mama Leong found herself short of work when the pandemic began. As an active grandma who couldn't sit idle, she reframed the pandemic as an opportunity to learn new things, refine her skills, and, once again fall in love with activities that she neglected due to the pressures of the daily grind. She began to cycle again, launched an Instagram account sharing her experimental kitchen endeavours .kitchen and even hopped on the sourdough baking bandwagon.
And as masks were in short supply (and not to mention expensive), she went about utilising her sewing skills (with decades of experience engineering my Halloween costumes and hemming up my high school uniforms) to construct masks for her family and friends. She swiftly discovered a reinvigorated passion for sewing and a new way to support and aid in protecting those she loved.
And this is where I come in - I’m proud to call this resilient woman my Mama! My name is Rachel and I’m a Graphic Designer by trade, but creating and problem-solving pervades through every facet of my life. I witnessed Mama Leong’s endless work prototyping masks and matching hair accessories (even serving as her model at times) and quickly realised that the masks and accessories were worthy of being sold and shared with the world.
And this is how make/shift store was born. Fast forward 5 months and 32 prototypes later, we found ourselves collaborating on a unique design, iterating and improving on common issues we’ve found the average mask to have. We’ve mastered comfort, durability, quality and ease of use, all without sacrificing aesthetics and style in our designs. The foundation of our philosophy is mindful, sustainable, size-inclusive design that benefits and supports people from all walks of life.
We sincerely hope you enjoy our masks and hair accessories as much as we did our journey to get here, but more importantly, we truly hope this serves as a reminder to always appreciate your mama! 💛
