Almalauha is a one-woman business run by me, Alex. I design and make fashion accessories, art, and home decoration.

My love for art and design developed from an early age, first by colouring, drawing, and kids’ crafting, and then in my teens by teaching myself how to design and make clothing and costumes. A year at art school helped me further develop my artistic abilities.

Whilst in art school I needed to commute from my tiny student room to school on my bicycle. For this I needed a strong bag that could hold a lot of stuff, yet I could easily carry on my shoulder (alongside a big backpack). I used a piece of painter’s canvas I bought at the local fabric market to make a very simple tote bag with the aim to use it on my commutes and travels. This bag has gotten so much use yet is still going strong today! My love for bags grew out of this simple but very effective bag and realising that bags can be used irrespective of your body shape or size, meaning you can hold on to your favourite bags for life.

With Almalauha I want to offer beautifully-made bags handmade by myself. I mostly use materials already here such as pieces of fabric and haberdashery I find at charity shops as well as second-hand clothes that I upcycle as opposed to buying all my supplies new. This way I try to reduce the footprint of what I make as well as create something truly unique as many of the materials I use are no longer available in shops. I never make two of the same bag, so any bag you will buy here is one of a kind.

I love bright colours, tapestry and upholstery fabrics, quirky embroidered patches, and to create items that are useful and durable. This is what I work to achieve with the bags I create. Using materials sourced second-hand I want to give a new life to a piece of material or part of a garment that otherwise may have been turned into rags or sent to a landfill. I want to value what we already have by getting the most use out of it.

In addition to making bags, I also paint (acrylic on canvas), do some mixed media and photography, and make lino cuts and prints for home decoration.

All the work is done by myself, here in England.