Meet the Meanest employee at KaiKini

Okay... maybe she's not really the Meanest... but her nickname IS Mina! Our a capella singing, paper-cutting, cookie baking, stranger-than-strange(-in-all-the best-ways) movie critic does more than help sew each and every bikini - she makes sure they all meet our rigid quality standards and look perfect before reaching your mailbox. With her artistic flair she's also great at helping solve design problems and has helped bring some of our newest styles to life! Hooray for mean girls! Read on to learn more about why we're so thankful for Miss Mina...

Name: Marina Loew

KaiKini Position: Quality Control Manager & Seamstress AKA The Cookie Monster

What’s Your Sign: Cancer (June 25)

Hometown: Dryden, NY

Favorite Color: Fall Colors (at the moment!)

Favorite KaiKini at the moment: Kahuna bottoms!

Favorite thing about working at KaiKini: Other than the awesome group of girls I work with, I’d have to say that one of the awesome things about KaiKini is that it’s the first job where I've been able to put my art degree to good use. Education money NOT wasted!

What’s the last book you read? 

“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. As a closet gamer and RPG addict, I LOVED it! 

Stripper Name (middle name + first road you lived on):
Sophia Lake…which sounds more like a cross between a stripper and an opera singer

Theme song at the moment?
I’m currently on a sick-of-all-my-music-especially-if-it-has-words kick (yes, random), so I’m gonna go with one of my favorite songs from the Amélie soundtrack, “Comptine d’un autre été, l’après-midi” by Yann Tiersen.

Any secret talents you’d like to reveal?
Not really a secret, but I've been a weaver since I was two and used to teach classes back in high school. I've got my own floor looms and everything.

What inspires you?
Art. Particularly from the Renaissance and Art Nouveau eras. And the amazing brush strokes of the Impressionists.

What are your hobbies outside of making bikinis?
If you haven’t guessed it yet, it’s making art. Knitting, painting, paper cutting, needlepoint, lithography, encaustic, carving, beadwork…if it’s a form of art, I’m doin' it.

Favorite way to stay fit?
Outrigger paddling. The main reason (other than Kaikini, of course!) that I’m still here on Kauai.

Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas?
Can I answer “Hallothanksmas”?

Any secrets you’d like to reveal?
I joined an ocean outrigger club to face my fear of big waves.

What’s your favorite childhood memory?
Sappy answer, but my sister is my favorite childhood memory. Having ‘bull fights’, designing our own parachutes and testing them out on our dolls by throwing them off the balcony, water ballet in the St. Lawrence, getting buried in the ditch by the snowplow, bribing her with my stashed Halloween candy…we've been on a lot of adventures. Love you, sible!

What are you giving thanks for?
My island ohana; for embracing me so warmly and making me feel at home even when I'm so far from it.