KNOWN GETS FUSED WITH NEW
For her latest collection, designer Amanda Laird Cherry revisited the archives to give the signature ALC look a fresh twist that’s ready for spring
What drew you to become a fashion designer?
I have always loved proportion and fabrics and clothing and I was an avid, very considered shopper. When I thought about what would be viable as a business, clothing was the winner because you can use your artistic side, you’re creating art, and it’s like sculpture because you’re making it for a three-dimensional body. And then you have the opportunity to talk stories and create drama and theatre in the shows, and I found that was the perfect combination for me.
Who is the ALC woman?
I like to think that we’re designing for an aesthetically conscious customer and, in some ways, they’re a thinking person and not just a follower of fastfashion trends. They’re more interested in good fabrics and they’ll balance core pieces that are timeless with one or two on -trend pieces that will complement, so they know they’re not wasting money and they can mix it in. I feel like they are aware of our commitment to South African production and the sustainability around that. I believe we have customers who understand what we’re trying to do in the local market.
Tell us about the new collection.
It was quite a lot about reflection and pausing to think and going back to the archives of stuff we’d done before, giving a sort of updated overall view of what the brand has had in the past in fresh spring colours that are easy. So some of them are more pastel and some are more terracotta, and the combination of it is not just like ice-cream colours — it’s been fused. Very important is our commitment to shweshwe. The fabric we used is a shweshwe that we’ve overdyed ourselves with our own colour
— it’s very personal to the brand.
How has ALC changed over the years? Hopefully we’ve changed in the right way with the times. We are contemplatively reactionary, if that makes sense. Sometimes you can just do what you feel like doing and not be restricted by what your planning, assessments and analytics are saying, and then you can see how people respond. At the same time, if you only go by analytics, you’ll get stale. And if you only do new things, your customers who have been with you might not understand. So there are so many aspects to the business that you have to learn. I think that’s what I’ve learnt along the way: that it’s not just about the creativity, it’s about the fusion of the numbers, the planning, the analytics, who your suppliers are. But of course, there are core threads of aesthetics that have pulled through to today.
Tell us about your love of shweshwe. I did my graduation range in shweshwe. Shweshwe has always been at the core of my love for fabrication and I’m so excited that, over the past few years, we’ve been able to bring it into every season. There were times when I wasn’t doing any and my mentors would ask me, "You’re known for shweshwe. Why aren’t you doing it?" But again, that also has to evolve, so that’s why we now overdye it. Some of those garments, if you look at them, you don’t know they’re shweshwe. You have to look at the back for that stamp, and even the feel and smell.
What’s next for ALC for 2019? We have an online store for The Space now and we’re building on that. People are busy, lives are busy and people don’t always get to the store, so that’s a big focus for 2019. We’re also really trying hard to expand our shoes. We’ve been wanting to do more styles and add heels, but it’s not easy in South Africa to do shoe manufacturing. All our shoes have been made in SA, but it’s extremely difficult to find the heels, the components and all the pieces. I’m really hoping that even if I have to find the components and bring them into the country, we can make it happen and we can make a bigger variety of shoes.