Sheila Alfonsin✖️Kate&You

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! Before ending 2018, we would like to share one more collaboration with you guys... so....the brand is called "Sheila Alfonsin" from Spain. Born and raised in 2 beautiful cities in Spain which have unique different culture have been definitely influenced her brand identity. Let's discover the brand history, concept, inspiration and the latest collection etc...

I was born in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia), but my parents settled in a beautiful village in the Catalan Pyrenees bordering France, so I was raised between mountains and snow. I was always very interested in art, painting, and fashion, because I saw in it a way of expressing my most creative vision, so this fusion became a tool that I used from my childhood with much freedom and spontaneity. I was discovering that clothing is a very powerful visual language that we have in our power to communicate, transmit emotions and project ideas, so I decided to pursue my university studies in fashion design at IED Barcelona, where I got rich in techniques and learned a lot about the social system fashion rules.

It’s a very young brand, which started with my final grade collection. I felt very comfortable working to rescue origins and update them according to a cultural and social evolution. I realized that working on this that encompassed everything I wanted to express and that helped me to represent a human component which is difficult to materialize but in which we all feel identified. For this reason, I decided to take it further, not only with fashion but working on a vision to a joint project that included different artistic forms that would allow to expand the creative perception of the same culture such as illustration, photography, audiovisual, complements...I tried to include all the possible artisanal and innovative techniques to create that space-time relationship between tradition and evolution.

I thought it was important to mention my place of birth and differentiate it from the place where I grew up, because it is what represents me better when it comes to working and growing as a designer. The fact of being in contact with two cultures so opposed like the Catalan and Galician allowed me to break that line between tradition and innovation and respect two completely different ways of social growth. This is the basis of my brand, the intention to respect the traditional cultural environment and in an innocent way to evolve it by means of the innovation that we have at our disposal nowadays.  My idea is to systematize both in everything I do to achieve a product that responds to the two demands: create something new but harmonious with the old. In this way, I intend to arrive at a new style that meets the past, the present and the future and reflects an adequate thorough evolution with the course of time.

Reinterpreting the shadows of culture, “G” takes all that is marked by the history of Galicia. It synthesizes the matriarchal figure of the traditional woman and evolves it from the rural to the present of fashion, art, and architecture through a social and geographical study that represents the essence of the Spanish North Atlantic. Organic forms, delicate and imposing volumes, and natural textures that contradict the austere of their land and history, with the nostalgic and enveloping essence of the female role taken to face the roles imposed on women in their cultural trajectory. “· G” seeks to transmit the goodness and freedom truncated by social tradition, and at the same time reflect the beauty of its landscapes and the bravery of the climate with balanced colors and dynamic prints. A constant and harmonic vision of the evolution of being on earth, based on their natural resources.

Please see her A/W 2018 collection with beautiful images including her sketchbook+work progress images!!!!!

I can use anything I find interesting in terms of color, shape, and texture, but above all things that can easily capture an atmosphere to inspire me, be it architecture, painting, pattern making... I research everything that is important in order to achieve the best possible expression of my concept, including working tools from the fishing or rural world, nature, climate conditions, and above all marine fauna. Everything is very focused on the sea and the Atlantic climate.

If I quote any direct influence, this would be Peter Eisenman and his particular way of development through architecture. I think that we should not necessarily look at how to develop in our own field arts, but in ways of perceiving and reflecting, and in this case I admire how to conceive a project taking into account everything that surrounds it to be able to create properly in the historical moment in which it is made, as Peter Eisenman did in his work “The City of Culture” of Santiago de Compostela. That is why I rely on the cultural contrast of all the factors that surround us and the mixture of them without losing the harmony and sensibility that each of us shows about each culture.

My target public is very versatile, I create clothes for women and men that show a feeling that all human beings can denote as it focuses on the origin of our traditions and the evolution of being. It is proposed for people with social restlessness, culturally active and who seek the combination of craftsmanship and innovation with very elegant and timeless garments but with textures and harmonious silhouettes and at the same time groundbreaking showing personality and style.

Currently, the collection and illustrations are available by custom order by mail on hello.sheilaalfonsin@ gmail.com. It’s possible to see the collection on NotJustALabel (https://www.notjustalabel.com/sheila-alfonsin-queiro), and on Instagram @sheila.alfonsin for illustrations and have more news about the projects runs. We sent anywhere. We believe in the realization of a unique product in which two are not equal, each person will receive a product made personally and with due dedication to make it meet the demands of a craft creation and not a form of mass consumption.

I am working on a group project with different components of the artistic world of photography, the audiovisual field, painting, and music. While working on my collection in which there will be a greater focus on handbags and accessories, my proposal is to carry out an exhibition that covers different fields in relation to a common culture and to show each one its particular vision sharing the same origin and taking it towards innovation. One of my ambitions is to make people perceive fashion as an artistic and cultural group that is not only represented through clothing. I would like to be able to achieve the experience of perceiving it as something created together from a common point like the culture origins, but with different formats and thus achieve a more sensorial and direct experience for the consumer. Another great ambition would be to expose it in the museum of Peter Eisenman; The city of Culture of Galicia. I think it would be a way to complete the group vision of different arts from the same point of origin and give a voice to Galicia in the new artistic visions.

I hope everyone enjoyed our article! To Sheila: Thank you very much for accepting our collaboration and provided us with all the necessary information and amazing images. We will best luck to you and your career! We hope to work with you again in the future!