Every fashion brand has certain materials and fabrics they use to make their fashion items. While some materials are the everyday materials used by other brands, other materials are unique and innovative – like using pineapple leaves extract to make handbags, electrical wires to make fashion items, milk to make clothes, recycled plastics to make sneakers and raffia to make handbags.
The list goes on and on. Among those brands creating beautiful fashion pieces from unusual materials is the Alienina fashion brand that makes handbags from sailing and mountain climbing ropes.
The Alienina fashion brand is a handbag and jewellery brand that was founded in 2008 by Eliana Venier, an Italian designer. The brand was founded with the aim of “inspiring people to discover that items can have an extra life and new functions.”
Every handbag and jewellery piece made by the Alienina fashion brand is realised by hand, one by one, thereby rescuing traditional processes and turning ordinary materials into one of a kind fashion accessories. The brand creates timeless pieces based on the principle of love and respect for craftsmanship.
The philosophy of the project is giving a new function and aesthetic value to everyday objects and extending their lifespan.
The Alienina brand was initially started as a laboratory for creative experimentation at a time when its Creative Director, Eliana Venier, was tired of the fashion system. The brand was birthed to break the normal mould of fashion and create something new and fresh.
The choice of the word ‘alien’ in the brand’s name was used to underline the fact that the brand was alien to the traditional fashion system, straddling designs, art, fashion, craftsmanship and madness.
Inspiration Behind Alienina Accessories
The inspiration behind the shape of each handbag and jewellery piece is the material used in designing it. Asides from the materials, the shapes of everything around – nature, art and design, architecture, concerts, etc. – inspires the creativity behind each accessory piece.
The materials are what inspires the forms that are realized as the end result. That way the creative process is absolutely free and always brings the unexpected.
Since each handbag piece is hand-made, they are all unique. Even though each model is made in large quantities, there are no two identical pieces among them. The intentional irregularities or imperfections in the pieces make them singular.
The hand techniques used by the brand are inspired by old traditional crafts which the designers then interprets in contemporary ways to birth unusual but beautiful pieces.
The Alienina Brand and Sustainability
The materials used by the fashion brand are sailing and mountain climbing cords, cotton wicks for oil lamps, resin, commonly used in car parts, and fabric and straps used for blinds. 90% of all these materials are production waste, which would otherwise have gone to landfills, and are washable and non-toxic.
These cords and rope scraps are gotten from all parts of the world and upcycled into bags and jewellery pieces. Since each piece is hand-made, the production process is eco-friendly.
All production processes by the brand are done in the Alienina studio in Italy thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the brand by having all their workers close to each other. At the studio, they focus on creating high-quality hand-crafted products with great attention to detail and strong aesthetic appeal to keep customers coming back for more.
What is to Learn from the Alienina Fashion Brand?
The Alienina fashion brand is one that was birthed out of a need to break out of the normal mould of fashion and create something different yet functional and beautiful and they achieved it.
For fashion entrepreneurs, this serves as a form of challenge to you. If you realise that doing fashion the normal way is getting boring and unsatisfactory, it might be a cue for you to step up your game and change the way things are.
The world needs less waste in the economy and people that are not afraid to stand out and be different. You can be that person if only you try.
