My Stylish Life – Mija Knezevic

Above: Mija wears jacket, Adam Lippes; trousers, Loewe; shoes, Bottega Veneta

Multi-hyphenate Mija Knezevic is sitting in her Notting Hill garden, surrounded by vine leaves
and drinking her cup of morning coffee. Having just returned from a holiday in Milos, Greece,
she’s keen to get back into the swing of things. With a busy schedule that starts with a run in the
park and a session at the gym (she trains with weights), she’s already been awake for hours.
After our interview, she will spend the rest of the day on her laptop, carefully researching
trends and immersing herself in the fascinating worlds of fashion, art, design and production. This is all so that she can be at the top of her game, because staying relevant in the notoriously fierce fashion industry is paramount to her success. Mija, who thinks of herself as a loyal, persistent, organised, resilient and empathetic person, is one of the few who has what it takes.

Originally from Serbia, Mija started out as a fashion blogger. As a child, she developed her fashion sense through watching her mother get dressed every morning. She also watched French films (“I would drool over the costume designs”) and closely observed the many stylish women she would see walking in the streets of Belgrade. After a happy childhood spent playing on the beaches in the old seaside towns of Montenegro, she took a degree in Visual Communications and then flew across the Atlantic for a Master’s at New York University. Here, she soon became enmeshed in the life and culture of the city. “I was at the forefront of street style in New York when it all began in 2010. I would attend school in the morning and then immerse myself in fashion and art the rest of the day,” says Mija. “It was the best time in my life,” she enthuses.

Exposure to the art and culture of New York would come to play a huge part in shaping and
defining the visual aesthetic for which Mija is known, a style that is at times
minimal and mature looking and at other times fun and playful. A quick glance at her Instagram
reveals a mishmash of styles, with photos of Mija wearing the likes of Celine, Bottega Veneta and Marine Serre to name a few. “My style is very eclectic but recognisable at the same time,” says Mija. “I like to wear wearable and comfortable things. It’s always evolving, but somehow still maintaining my way of doing and wearing things. I would say that although during the pandemic I have been gravitating more towards easy T-shirts and sweatshirts, my favourite outfit remains a tailored powerful suit with flowing fabrics.”

Today, Mija is an accomplished creative director, art director and social media strategist, as well
as a popular stylist and influencer. Working with clients based all over the world, she’s been
drawing on a skillset that she has been carefully honing for decades. From planning social media
strategies to directing campaigns for brands, Mija knows how to do it all. She’s also no stranger
to tackling a challenge head on. “Every client has a different need. Especially emerging brands
that do not have the know-how to build a brand,” Mija explains. And overcoming adversity is
just part of the deal: “As Carl Jung said, ‘Man needs difficulties, they are necessary for health’.
You only grow as a person if you struggle.”

For many months now, Mija has been working on a new project called Neohiro. It’s a training
method that seeks to raise users’ central nervous system awareness through exercise. “You will
hear more about it at the end of this year,” Mija tells me over email, in what I imagine are hushed tones. The project is yet to launch, but it does have a website on which I see the words ‘Neohiro Coming Soon’ boldly embossed on a pitch-black background.

Mija wears shirt, JW Anderson; top, Saloni; jeans, & Other Stories; earrings, Uncommon Matters

Neohiro is a testament to Mija’s love of sport, as well as her passion for healthy living and
keeping fit. She was a talented sprinter at school, and her business partner was, at one point,
training to become a professional sprinter. And the Neohiro method was invented by a scientist
who trains professional sprinters to better perform at Olympic level. Mija is especially conscious of the pressures placed on people within the creative industries, many of whom work long hours and have a poor work-life balance. As she told Fashion Monitor in an interview last year: “Lots of people within the [creative] industry work late, don’t work out, smoke cigarettes, and have poor nutritional habits. All of these things have a negative impact on our minds, bodies and the planet.” As someone who spends a great deal of time on the Internet, Mija is, unsurprisingly, extremely mindful of making sure she enjoys life offline as well. She notes that it’s important to disconnect from social media and online consumption, else “it will take a toll on your sanity”.

Despite having over 315k followers on Instagram, Mija has developed a close relationship with her fans. And although the social media landscape has changed drastically from when she first started in 2009, she’s always tried her best to be authentic and remain true to herself. “It’s a matter of integrity. Being honest and consistent will get you far,” she says. As for living a life in the limelight, Mija is both practical and grounded: “Fame and success can take a toll on mental health, if managed poorly. You have to work on yourself no matter what your occupation is,” she says. “Success is being at peace with yourself, the rest is just add-ons.”