On a sunny Thursday morning The Restory sat down with London/Kent based entrepreneur Mimi Lefever to discuss all things food, fashion and of course business related. We are delighted to include Mimi in the third part of our Style Series.
R: Hello Mimi would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
M: Hi I’m Mimi Le Fever; I am 36 from the Côte d’Ivoire. I have been living in the UK since 2002 and I got married in 2009. I have two beautiful girls who are ten and 6. I am a bit of a foodie, with an obsession for handbags and sunglasses. I wish we had the sun all the time just so I could wear all my pairs!
R: I see you spend a lot of time between London and Kent, how does countryside life vary for you from life in London?
M: Well in Kent it is all work work work work! We run rehab clinics so our offices are not very far from home. We have two clinics in Kent one near Sandwich and the other one in Ashford. I typically find that with my life in Kent I can spend one or two hours at one of the clinics, have lunch at one of the centres, as the food is so fantastic, and then straight over to the other clinic. Kent is always so busy for me. However when I get to London, I have restaurants, shops and everything everywhere! Our clinic is in Kendrick Mews in the heart of South Kensington so I feel very lucky to have all these great facilities around me.
R: So would you like to explain to me a bit about the clinics and how they operate?
M: The clinics are called Promis and it is a family run centre. We look after addicts, and we treat the misuse of alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, gambling and any disorders that people may have. I run the business with my husband Robin but he is definitely the face of the company! When my husband asked me to work with him back in 2005 I was a bit apprehensive but it works really well! In total we have 3 clinics in London and 2 in Kent, so I have to be able to travel between these easily.
R: So tell us about something you really love and that you would love to see carefully restored, and why is restoration important to you?
M: In my opinion regardless of what the item is, a house, a car, shoes it is about taking something that is broken and turning it into something that is magical. One of the clinics that we have in Wye used to be an old college that belonged to Imperial College London and it was left to rot. When my husband first took me there I was completely baffled on how we were going to renovate it, as the original state was so bad! I mean some of the rooms did not even have a roof. I have been putting some images on Instagram, but when I have finished, I shall put some before and after images on so you can see what it was like before! That was absolute restoration!
R: Do you have anything that you would like people to know about you? Something about your family, an unusual hobby?
M: I strongly believe in helping pregnant women and babies because there are still so many women who are dying during childbirth and it just kills me. I felt so lucky when I gave birth to my babies that I had the help and the support of the NHS as plenty of women not only in Africa, but in America too do not have the luck that I had, so I try and help this cause as much as I can. In regards to family, mine is quite big! I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters who are scattered across the globe but we are all very close however I would definitely describe myself as the craziest one of my siblings!
R: So Mimi we are now going to ask you some quick fire questions…
M: Okay!
R: Favourite restaurant in London?
M: Zuma
R: Favourite place to shop?
M: Well online I would say Net-A-Porter or The Outnet but in store it has to be Harrods – Simply because it has everything there!
R: Dream travel destination?
M: I would say Tokyo.
R: So you are big on Instagram, what do you like so much about the platform?
M: I love that I can talk to so many different people that I may never meet and I see so many different pictures of so many different things and I am amazed! I love Instagram! Meeting people talking to people and sharing snippets of your life! For example I have put a picture of a new handbag on my Instagram and I have people asking me all types of questions, I mean one girl even asked me what the leather smelt like!
R: Thank you so much Mimi that concludes our interview, it’s been a pleasure to meet you!
For more information on Promis then please go to their website
