Afro-Latina Jefa Sonia Kang Talks Multicultural Representation in Kid’s Fashion

As children there were probably certain things that our families expected us to wear in public, especially for special events like parties, quinceañeras, baptisms, and communion. But when we were supposed to assimilate, especially in school, how often did we get to wear our cultural or traditional clothing? Even today, how comfortable do we really feel letting cultural or traditional clothing influence our fashion choices at work or even our own kids? It can be tricky to find the balance between cultural pride and assimilation, between standing out or feeling accepted. And yet, it’s undeniable that wearing cultural clothing is an extension of who we are and where we come from and that’s important. They represent a piece of history that’s been passed down throughout generations, the craftsmanship of the community members who make them. It’s a physical object that connects us to our heritage and reminds us of where we come from no matter where we are. So why aren’t we wearing them, especially as kids? Because the mainstream market has yet to see the potential of mixing cultural and traditional clothing with everyday wear and making it an integral part of our lives outside of major events or ceremonies.

That’s where Afro-Latina business owner Sonia Kang comes in. She is the founder of Mixed Up Clothing, a children’s clothing brand that turns traditional fabrics and patterns into everyday wearables for every child from infants to around eight years old. As someone who is a part of a multicultural family, both because of her parents and husband, she understands the importance of embracing diversity in every aspect of her business and seeks to increase diversity in the kids’ fashion industry.

“I know that on the surface people might think that clothes are just something you put on, but there’s a lot of history behind fashion that is also a form of resistance,” she tells HipLatina. “There’s this wonderful thing that happens when you put on your clothes. I see it as suit of armor for when you go out into the world. You create how you want to be seen.”

This was something Kang learned from an early age as the daughter of an African American father and a Mexican American mother, who both served in the military. Born in Puerto Rico, she briefly lived with her family on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu before settling in Los Angeles. During those years, the different environments she grew up in introduced her to a strong sense of cultural identity and pride. During her time in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, she saw the sense of pride, history, and heritage that appeared in people when they put on their cultural clothing, which inspired her. On the weekends, she would watch her cousins perform dances in traditional garments. She began to see the importance of other things her family wore, like her grandfather with his cowboy hat and belt buckle. At the same time, she did briefly go through a period where, like many of us, she tried to stifle any sort of connection to her Latinx culture in order to assimilate and blend in with mainstream American society.

Kang began reclaiming her cultural heritage and pride when she began working as a critical care registered nurse, where she was fascinated by an important but underserved intersection between culture and health. In the hospital, her patients and their families would bring in a prayer rug or candles for healing, and even talk about the importance of these items with her. When she met and eventually married her husband, who is of Korean descent, they only brought furniture and other items into the home that reflected their various heritages, especially since their children would be multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual. As opposed to prioritizing any one culture, they knew it would be important to celebrate them all, even if others didn’t quite understand.

It was an important learning experience for Kang, who, through her husband, was able to learn about important Korean traditions like Baek-il, a celebration marking a child’s 100 days of life, and Dol, which honors their first birthday. For special occasions like these, the baby wears traditional Korean garments like the hanbok, which consists of a top, skirt, coat, and fastening string. Because of its beauty and importance, she wanted to replicate something like it for her kids to wear as everyday apparel, as opposed to it only being for certain days of their lives. But she ran into a problem.

“There I was, was looking for clothes for my kids and, if it wasn’t traditional garments, there wasn’t anything that reflected us,” she explains. “Even when I was looking for diapers or baby food, the marketing didn’t speak to me. So I went downtown to the fashion district and I found some beautiful fabrics that had piñatas, sombreros, and Day of the Day images, and I turned them into fun everyday clothes for my kids. It was to solve a problem for my children, so that they might see themselves.”

It worked so well that people would stop her family on the street and ask where she bought the clothes, only to be told that she had made them by hand. Furthermore, it opened up conversations where she was able to educate them about her children’s many cultures and she learned about their cultures as well, whether they wore or celebrated something similar to her family. She saw the potential for using fashion as a vehicle to change the face of an entire industry that so rarely acknowledges or embraces what it means to be multicultural. And so by 2016, she began to form the idea that would become Mixed Up Clothing.

For some people, the connection between medicine and business might be nonexistent or tenuous at best. But actually, Kang found herself using her nursing knowledge to springboard the creation of the brand, creating an entrepreneurial transition that just made sense.

“I applied a skill we use in nursing called the nursing process—assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation (ADPIE)—to start my business,” she says. “I assessed my knowledge gaps in business operations and sought help to fill them. Joining organizations like the Valley Economic Development Center was crucial [because] they helped me secure certifications and provided resources. The Valley Economic Alliance further supported my goals by offering access to capital and connecting me with CSUN business students for a capstone project. Just like in nursing, I continuously evaluate and adjust my strategies to ensure the business thrives.”

When it comes to the initial design of her apparel, Kang takes heavy inspiration from her multicultural upbringing. Harkening back to her grandparent’s cowboy hat, she once printed a fabric with a cowboy hat print and sewed it into a boy’s button-down shirt. Or she’ll take inspiration from the baja hoodies and serapes she wore growing up in the ’80s and ’90s and turn a similar fabric into a bomber jacket. She also plays around with shapes and silhouettes, which can be seen in one of her ruffle trim dresses that mimics the neckline and wrap-around style of the hanbok on the top, along with the stripes of a serape on the skirt. In every piece, there’s a sense of freedom, play, and fun, a blending of the different cultures she knows, and it’s all authentically her own.

“I try to make sure that everything is part inspiration, part aspiration, and part celebration,” she says.

And for those who resonate or are a part of other cultures, she has those kids covered too. She offers shirts and leggings with a print that says “hello” in at least ten different languages, as well as a shirt that lists different cultural foods in the style of the alphabet, like “M for Mofongo.” In doing so, she brings an international look at culture that supercedes even the cultures that her own family identifies with. For her, it’s all about resisting the lessons about assimilation that we were forced to learn and instead embracing the diversity of the world and the differences but also similarities that shape us.

She’s already reached incredible milestones with her business like having exclusive clothing collections sold at Target and Macy’s for families to purchase in store. But besides obviously becoming a household name, she’s also looking ahead to other exciting collaborations with other clothing brands, like a doll brand that wants to partner with her for a line of cultural doll clothes. For her, it’s all about building an authentic partnership with outside brands that don’t have to take her ideas but that can collaborate and amplify her independent brand.

In every aspect of Mixed Up Clothing, Kang is intentional about everything she does. And when she goes to represent herself and her business at panels and talks, she is precise about what she wears as well, from her lipstick to her hoops to her grandmother’s necklace. For her, fashion is about power and the beautiful things that can happen when we wear clothing that is authentic to us, which starts, perhaps most importantly, in childhood. She notes:

“When kids put on my designs, I hope they feel a sense of change, a sense that maybe things are moving in a better direction of accepting their cultures, foods, and clothing. I want them to be authentically who they are. I want them to be able to grab these clothes and know that somebody sees them. I want them to go onto my store, pick it out of the closet, wear the clothes, feel seen, and be empowered and ready to take on the world.”