Carmen Alen is a daring designer who is always looking for new challenges. After having worked for ten years for other brands, she decided to embark on her own project and open the doors to her own world of ideas. That’s how Alen was born, a new aesthetic concept that joins together fashion, art and modernity to reinterpret and revive women’s iconic clothes.
How did Alen come to live?
Alen arose almost naturally, after having worked for ten years for “brands to be sold at shopping” –I worked for María Cher, Félix and Trosman. Although I like the exercise of designing trying to put myself in another brand’s place and getting into a universe that was built by someone else, I wanted to start something of my own, I needed to speak from my own place, my own universe. So I started, first alone and then I joined Anto and Alday, that are the two people in all over the world that think just like me, and we did it: Alen came to live.
Alen is a young brand that appeared at a time when author design is understood and demanded. Which is your strategy to stand apart from the rest and get your own place?
We like to see ourselves as a brand and not as “authors”. We try to value iconic women’s clothes, not to express an “author” idea. We don’t have a strategy to stand apart from the rest, but I do think that we have a strong identity and that helps…Alen is kind of saying: “Hello! Here I am, this is who I am”. Besides, we design everyday clothes and that is something that characterizes us. Clients often say to me: “I have never taken this out since the day I bought it” or “I use it every day”. When I see that that happens and that the idea of Everyday Icons has become a motto of the brand I think: “Ok, I am doing well, this works”
How is Alen’s winter?
It has iconic items of clothing, both icons as they are and also exaggerated or transformed icons… there are a lot of combinations: tracksuit + sweat pants; shirt + pajamas pants; top + leggings; cloth coat + cloth skirt; raincoat + rain pants: many outfits.
The palette is strong and multicolor. Style is a Little bit sporty, a little bit tailor-made; a little bit elegant, a little bit clumsy.
Which are the musts of the collection?
The oversized shirt and tracksuit are musts in all our collections. Lacquer boots are also a must: they are every day boots but also really cool.
How would you define your clients?
Luckily, our clients can’t be defined by just own characteristic, in fact there are products for different kinds of women. I believe all of them are looking for something they can wear everyday but something that is different at the same time.
Carmen Alen is a daring designer who is always looking for new challenges. After having worked for ten years for other brands, she decided to embark on her own project and open the doors to her own world of ideas. That’s how Alen was born, a new aesthetic concept that joins together fashion, art and modernity to reinterpret and revive women’s iconic clothes.
How did Alen come to live?
Alen arose almost naturally, after having worked for ten years for “brands to be sold at shopping” –I worked for María Cher, Félix and Trosman. Although I like the exercise of designing trying to put myself in another brand’s place and getting into a universe that was built by someone else, I wanted to start something of my own, I needed to speak from my own place, my own universe. So I started, first alone and then I joined Anto and Alday, that are the two people in all over the world that think just like me, and we did it: Alen came to live.
Alen is a young brand that appeared at a time when author design is understood and demanded. Which is your strategy to stand apart from the rest and get your own place?
We like to see ourselves as a brand and not as “authors”. We try to value iconic women’s clothes, not to express an “author” idea. We don’t have a strategy to stand apart from the rest, but I do think that we have a strong identity and that helps…Alen is kind of saying: “Hello! Here I am, this is who I am”. Besides, we design everyday clothes and that is something that characterizes us. Clients often say to me: “I have never taken this out since the day I bought it” or “I use it every day”. When I see that that happens and that the idea of Everyday Icons has become a motto of the brand I think: “Ok, I am doing well, this works”
How is Alen’s winter?
It has iconic items of clothing, both icons as they are and also exaggerated or transformed icons… there are a lot of combinations: tracksuit + sweat pants; shirt + pajamas pants; top + leggings; cloth coat + cloth skirt; raincoat + rain pants: many outfits.
The palette is strong and multicolor. Style is a Little bit sporty, a little bit tailor-made; a little bit elegant, a little bit clumsy.
Which are the musts of the collection?
The oversized shirt and tracksuit are musts in all our collections. Lacquer boots are also a must: they are every day boots but also really cool.
How would you define your clients?
Luckily, our clients can’t be defined by just own characteristic, in fact there are products for different kinds of women. I believe all of them are looking for something they can wear everyday but something that is different at the same time.
“It’s time to go back to God” is a phrase used time and time again in Alen, why?
“It’s time to go back to god” arose because in front of where I live there is HUGE bus of the church “It’s time to go back to god”. Every day, since two years ago, I read that phrase each time I get out of my home, and that comes together with another phrase: “Time is running out”, there was no way of avoid printing it!!!!!
