Mirror Palais Owner Marcelo Gaia on the Past, Present, and Future of His Beloved Brand

By Rosa Jisoo Pyo

Mirror Palais’ founder Marcelo Gaia felt there was something so innocent and pure about his first memory of water: the warmth of being surrounded by the women of his family and his mermaid toy swimming through the bathtub. Both of these details deeply inspired his latest collection, The Virgin, the Princess & the Siren.

The New York City-based Mirror Palais debuted its fifth collection in September at its first New York Fashion Week show. Since then, internet It-girls such as Hailey Bieber and Matilda Djerf have worn Gaia’s designs. The new collection just opened for preorder in January, but due to limited fabric, most designs are sold out. Gaia loves a good story — it’s the thesis of his work. Raised in Queens by a single, immigrant mother, he experienced worldly travel only through the screen. Films like The Princess Bride, Braveheart, and Shakespeare in Love offered him an escape and, later, inspiration.

Photography by Anafer Flores & Marcelo Gaia

The Virgin, the Princess & the Siren collection explores different feminine archetypes, with each look in the collection falling into one. The Siren dress, for instance, can be likened to what the goddess Venus would wear for her sea-foamed birth; the blue fabric, the color of translucent sea glass, deliciously drapes every bit of softness the body offers. More than a seductress, she’s a siren.

During the collection’s campaign shoot, Gaia’s team dropped the Siren dress into the Sicilian Sea first and then placed it on the model. “All of a sudden," Gaia recalls, “she's transformed into, like, another time and place, even another world.” Rife with ruffles and immaculate lace, the Jellyfish Swamp dress looks freshly dredged from the shore. Bringing Gaia's illustration to life — a frustrating process — came to fruition even after the first sample was reminiscent of party streamers. The magic was in the lace, so Gaia's team carefully distressed the ends to imitate trailing tentacles that are soft but still sting. Much like the dress, jellyfish don’t swim — they float.

Photography by Anafer Flores & Marcelo Gaia

Also in this collection, the more structural Cortez top with the La Falda skirt. The under-wiring, rouleau loops and three-tiered built-in hoop skirt with steel boning demonstrate Gaia’s versatility in constructing garments.

As inspiration can be poured from a cup already served, an aspect of a petticoat from the brand's third collection was transformed into something bigger: the Ruffle Tunnel gown shell. The cream dress with adjustable black ties has been compared to Ariel’s makeshift dress after she metamorphoses into a human in The Little Mermaid, but Gaia says it was an unintentional, unconscious choice.

“When you put pen to paper when you start working on your computer when you start draping a garment," he explains, "or when you're doing anything to express that, it's just an amalgamation of other ideas that are all swirled up in your head.”

In The Little Mermaid, Ariel’s struggle between living a double life and yearning for freedom are themes that especially resonate with the queer community. The tale of transformation from mermaid to mortal has always transfixed Gaia, and the theme of transformation has been essential to building this collection. Gaia’s creative ingenuity has always embodied his upbringing. “I am super inspired by my Brazilian heritage," he says. “Both of my parents are immigrants that came here in the mid-1980s. Growing up in a Portuguese colony in Brazil, there's this interesting mix of old Europe, but the finishings and the overall execution has this kind of tropical feeling to it.”

Photography by Anafer Flores & Marcelo Gaia

Mirror Palais has been accused of appropriating the Catholic Mexican aesthetic, which Gaia denies. Speaking as a Brazilian Catholic man, he says, “you can't accuse someone of appropriating something that's already their own culture.”

Gaia is reclaiming Catholicism for himself. What once was traumatic is now a source of creativity, curiosity, and strength. The Virgin, the Princess & the Siren are manifestations of his healing. “When I see a church that I have never gone into, I'll go inside. And when I go walk inside, and I smell the smells, when I see Christ, I feel comforted," he says. "So I think all of those characters — the virgin, the siren, the princess — they are comfort characters for me. They make me feel good.”

Photography by Anafer Flores & Marcelo Gaia

For Gaia's first runway collection, which took place at an Episcopal church, the Church of the Ascension, he wanted his clothing to elicit strong reactions. Unintentionally, though, he provoked the religious conscience of some. “A church? REALLY? I mean this is DISRESPECTFULLLLLLLLLLL,” @iamchocolata commented on a Mirror Palais Instagram post.

For his part, Gaia feels there was no disrespect, rather it was a celebration of bodies. After the show, the church's reverend sent Gaia a letter that called the collection beautiful and thanked him for choosing the church. Although Gaia is proud of himself and his team’s work, he admits there has been a bit of disappointment: Validation from major fashion institutions was nowhere to be found after the show. But on TikTok, Instagram, and even Twitter, enthusiasm for Mirror Palais’ fifth collection was widespread.

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In just a few years, Mirror Palais has moved up symbolically, and literally, from a third-floor to a sixth-floor location, doubling its space. What was formerly one man operating out of his apartment has grown into an enterprise with 11 full-and part-time employees.

Gaia is certainly grateful, but success is not without its stresses for him. “No, we're not an Etsy shop. We are a small business,” he says. “New York is not very supportive of its fashion designers. New York City taxes you on top of the state [tax], so you're paying double taxes, which isn’t ideal. I've been so fortunate to create, but for other people who have this dream that is not as fortunate, it's just scary and there isn't a lot of support."

Gaia minimizes Mirror Palais’ carbon footprint by making and designing all of the brand's clothes in New York City. He sources vintage and deadstock fabric (fabric for the Medici bustier was found at a New Jersey estate sale) and pays livable wages to his workers. It has been four years since Gaia’s break-out piece the underwire polo was released and his dedication to creating a spectacle of the divine feminine body has not yet stopped. The blistering balance between a financially stable brand that is at the forefront of ethical fashion has been a struggle. Fighting off copycats, accepting catholic catharsis, and going to therapy, he still treads on and tells us a story.

It is all really expensive.

Recently, Melissa Hopkes was hired as the brand's president, intent on growing the business. Gaia, however, is conflicted by price margins and is potentially looking overseas for production. Therein lies the dilemma of a possible capitalist suspension of ethics.

Mirror Palais is currently working on a croquet and lace collection, made up of 75% vintage deadstock fabric. The collection will be limited and released this summer.

Photography by Hedi Stanton

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