This article was written by Demi Karanikolaou for Vimagazino / To Vima Greece - print & digital here
As I climbed the stairs to Alessandra Rich’s Mount Street headquarters during London Fashion Week, the warmth of an early autumn day still followed me inside. Below, Mayfair’s designer boutiques and well-dressed passers-by made for a dreamlike scene, while the world-famous Connaught hotel stood just across the street. A British institution, it was a fitting neighbour for the Italian designer I had come to meet, whom London has so enthusiastically adopted as its own. For sixteen years, Rich has been dressing glamorous women for their adventures in the city. Her seductive lace dresses, blazers with nipped-in waists and razor-sharp shoulders, and, of course, sparkling statement earrings have found their way onto red carpets and into wardrobes around the world, carrying a certain promise of a good time. These are clothes you make plans for. The moment I stepped into the apartment, I was taken straight back to that intimate, slightly chaotic ritual of getting dressed in your own room. Sunlight filtered through sheer curtains onto a sprawling pink rug and matching pouffe. Beautiful dresses were laid out across the space alongside everyday objects, including an ashtray full of cigarette ends. An open wooden wardrobe revealed florals, polka dots and pointed heels neatly lined up beneath them. This was the world of “Pink Fury”, Alessandra Rich’s spring/summer 2027 collection, and Alessandra was inviting us to rediscover the pleasure of deciding how we want to look before stepping outside. As she walked me through the collection, I was struck once again by her warmth and gentle strength. Our meeting and the conversation that followed would take us through her beginnings, the freedom she found in London, and the many different women she believes can exist within each of us.
“Do you remember the moment when designing clothes went from something you loved to something you knew you wanted to build your life around?” I asked her, trying to reach all the way back to the very first days of the brand and understand the distinct vision she had wanted to bring to the industry. “I have a vivid memory of the beginning; from the very first day, I knew I was building something and that awareness was what drove me to start,” she recalled, her eyes instantly lighting up with the drive only entrepreneurs can recognise. “It wasn’t just passion, but a desire for self-expression, to bring my vision into fashion and build a team, a community, an identity that women could relate to: a brand.” For the Italian designer, London has been home for many years, and the city’s influence runs deep within her brand. I wondered what London had given her creatively. Her answer reminded me of my own obsession with the city and its restless energy. “London gave me freedom. It taught me that elegance does not have to follow rules, and that individuality can be much more interesting than perfection. The brand is very much rooted here, in the energy and openness of the city.” But did she still see the metropolis through Italian eyes, or did it simply feel like home after all these years as a Londoner? “It feels completely like home,” she said with a smile.
Over the years, Rich has filled her collections with a surprising range of female characters. Some seem sexy and strong, others romantic and fragile. Were these different women within the same universe, or different sides of the same woman? “I believe that many different women dwell within every woman: the little girl playing dress-up, the adult choosing her identity, the woman searching for herself. Every woman is unexpected; every woman is a mystery,” she replied. “The AR woman today is strong and self-aware; she has built her wardrobe intentionally, she knows how to seduce, and doesn’t need to follow trends to do so. She has an inner fury - looking one way and being another.” An interesting choice of words, I thought, given that the collection we had gathered to discover was named “Pink Fury”. Rich had invited us into a beautiful, slightly messy “girl’s bedroom”, as she put it, filled with clothes, photographs, art and objects that made it feel like somebody’s private world. “This time I wanted to create an ultra-feminine, comfortable space - one that makes you want to take off your shoes, relax, and connect with other women. A space lived in by a woman who uses art as a language and surrounds herself with objects that bring pleasure,” she explained. The objects around us made me curious about her own sources of inspiration. At what point, I asked Alessandra, does an object or idea begin to turn into an entire collection? “I have such a collection of things I can refer to, from a vintage perfume bottle to a hair clip or a still from a film. Sometimes there is no connection between them at all, but somehow we make one. It’s never really about one object or one moment, but how all these different things come together,” she said. “It is an initial inspiration that later found other paths - as often happens in the creative process; it acts as a trigger, a fuse that ignites the fire. Sometimes, I even forget about it.”
As we walked through the collection, I pointed out how Rich’s designs always seem to have the most elegantly cut waists, whatever the fabric or silhouette. In a sea of designer dresses, impeccable tailoring has become one of her signatures. Alessandra explained that she sometimes cuts and recuts a garment again and again until she achieves that incredibly precise waist. “For me, the process is everything,” she said. “Ideas are found through exchange, experimentation, and even mistakes. Moving beyond the initial project, idea, or intuition to reach the heart of the process, where things take shape and become real. I can say that something is finished, but not that it is perfect.” As we continued to explore the signatures of her brand, I returned to another constant in her collections: contrast. Rich’s incredibly feminine proportions, bows, lace and florals are often paired with beautifully strong shoulders and almost 1980s power-woman silhouettes. “What draws you to that conversation between softness and strength?” I asked her. Her answer came quickly and spoke directly to the ethos of her house. “Both are necessary to define the complexity of female beauty. Nothing is absolute; everything hinges on balances, opposing forces, and different ways of knowing oneself. That is exactly my vision.” And then, of course, there is her oversized costume jewellery, beloved for its sparkle, glamour and true playfulness. “‘Playful’ is the right word,” she said. As someone who has never needed an excuse to wear an enormous pair of earrings, I could only agree. “They serve to bring light, movement, noise, and fun. They are part of the sexy armor.”
Women’s wardrobes have changed enormously over the years, yet the scrutiny that accompanies them persists: what is elegant, what is sexy, what is “appropriate”, and at what age. Looking around me, I had the sense that Alessandra Rich was far more interested in what a woman might want for herself - the woman wearing her clothes could be proper and playful, romantic and powerful, impeccably dressed and carefree, glamorous and sexy, even with a high neckline. “I think what makes a woman feel confident is being self-aware, connected to her own desires rather than those of others, and capable of forging her own code of seduction,” Alessandra told me. Indeed, the Alessandra Rich woman seemed to know her own spirit, a spirit Rich helped to dress. “After all these years of designing for women, what have women taught you about femininity that you didn’t know when you started?” I asked, her eyes already sparkling before I had finished the question. “I love this question!" she said. "I have always been attracted to the world of women, and my collections are really a response to that. I am constantly absorbing feminine energy, and every woman I meet leaves me with something. What I’ve learned is how many different sides femininity can have, and how naturally women move between them.”
It was a fitting remark in what felt like a temple to the feminine divine - surrounded by plush pink furniture, intricately crafted clothes and striking artworks depicting the female form, among them a holographic portrait of Kate Moss by artist Chris Levine. In an industry where so many visions of femininity are shaped by men, I found particular pleasure in hearing a woman speak about dressing other women with such affection and curiosity. Her interest in them seemed to extend well beyond the clothes. “There is always another side of femininity to discover,” she concluded. “And that continues to fascinate me.”