ALÇA

Emel is a Djiboutian artist and founder of the Tokyo based online brand ALÇA. After graduating from High School in 2007 in Djibouti, she traveled for a couple of years to finally settle in Tokyo in 2011 where she studied Art at Temple University Japan Campus. Early on in her childhood, she manifested her interest in Art. She later on struggled with body image, which helped her develop a skill, with very little knowledge in sewing, to create her own clothes from scratch. Not only did it help to love herself more, but it also strengthened her love for creating.  

The journey at Temple University as well as life in Tokyo polished her as an artist. Inspired by spirituality, nature and music, she found the great platform that Japan is to explore and perfect her ideas. 

On her fifth and final year, she went to seek an immersion in the study of sculpting in Florence (Italy) . This intensive and short period of focus allowed her to communicate through a different medium. After graduating in 2016 she went back to the element that was once a “life savior” in her childhood: Fashion. 

In 2017, she started working for a consulting company while attending pattern making classes once a week for a year at Esmod Fashion School. She quickly jumped on collaboration opportunities of which one in particular changed her narrative. She befriended a gallery owner, Mizuka Kusaba and together they organized an exhibition Fashion and Art at the Okami Gallery in Ginza along with the artist Tsunahisa Ogino, son of the famous actor Tsurutaro Kataoka. From then on, opportunities multiplied and helped Emel to push her limits further every time. Her non-traditional journey to fashion and her heavy reliance on Art and Spirituality is what makes her vision appealing. The amazing opportunity to participate in Vancouver Fashion Week SS2020, held in October 2019, is a chance to see her universe  and her attempt to create a mesmerizing moment.

Website: https://www.alcafashiondesign.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alcafashiondesign/?hl=en