RACHELLE Shen is a 23-year-old from Sabah who studied Fashion Merchandise Product Development in Los Angeles.
Currently, she is back in her hometown Kota Kinabalu, where she started her clothing brand, The Alterreal, while waiting for international borders to open so that she can return to Melbourne to continue her studies in Sustainable Innovation for Fashion and Textiles.
theSun caught up with this budding young entrepreneur and asked her about what made her decide to transform her love of fashion into an innovative new business venture.
What is your biggest inspiration for fashion?
“Since I was seven or eight, I would draw on my notebooks. I would spend hours until late at night drawing all these fashion catalogues. I would even do it secretly underneath my blankets past my bedtime!
“I watched a lot of cartoons and anime and I thought their outfits were insane and I just loved all the feminine, crazy dresses. My sister and I shared the same love, so we would draw every day until high school.”
What happened after high school?
“I guess I had to focus on getting good grades. I felt like I had to give it up at one point because of the pressure to get the typical well paid and respected job.
“But when I was 15 or 16, I knew I wanted to do something in fashion. By the time I went to study for my A-levels, I had no doubt anymore.
“After that, I convinced my parents that I was serious about it and eventually, they understood and could see that it was my passion.”
Why did you choose to do fashion in two separate cities?
“When I was in LA, I saw the competition and saturation of the fashion industry, and I felt that I didn’t really align with the city’s lifestyle, and since I’d been in Australia a couple of times, I felt like the rising fashion industry there would be more suited for me.”
When did you start The Alterreal?
“I started it in July last year during the peak of the pandemic from my living room, with my sewing machine and three-thread colours and whatever old pieces of clothing I could find.
“Initially, I wanted to tap into the outlandish festival costumes that a person usually wouldn’t normally wear, but as the pandemic got worse, my inspiration evolved over time and I ended up trying pieces that allowed me to bring in colours into everyday wear instead.
“So, I decided to start with something easy, and started with masks and tote bags.
“When I started, the style of it wasn’t part of my personal image, which is the cookie-cutter Instagram image that’s easily digestible for a mass audience. It was like an alter ego of mine, hence the name The Alterreal.
“I was creating these quirky pieces to play with my alter ego and I wanted to embrace it. And as for ‘real’ in The Alterreal, it signifies that all our alter egos are very much a part of ourselves even if we don’t show it in our everyday life.
“I think we should embrace it as our creative expression, so I created this extension of myself.”
Do you plan to continue growing your brand in Malaysia?
“I’ve been going back and forth on this because although I want to grow the fashion industry in Malaysia, I’m just going with the flow right now.
“When I go back to Australia to continue my studies and if it goes well, I might continue there while having a remote operation in Malaysia.”
How do you plan to do that?
“Right now, I’m still doing everything myself but I’m hoping that when I do get the funds, I would want to hire artists and garment makers in Malaysia and create job opportunities for them while I design and oversee the business from Australia.”
What are your other plans for The Alterreal?
“I want to empower the creative industry by holding workshops and documenting other artists and their craft, and I’m also thinking that The Alterreal can become a one-stop shop for upcycled and handmade goods of the same aesthetics.
“Because I can only make so much, it would be great to have other artists join The Alterreal.”
In the future, Rachelle aims to make the fashion industry more regenerative and carbon neutral. She is slowly implementing this into her business with carbon neutral shipping and working exclusively with unwanted, secondhand clothing for her pieces instead of virgin materials.
She explained: “The topic of sustainability really resonated with me because we’re already doing so much damage to the Earth, so we need to do better. That’s why I want to work with unwanted material that deserve a second chance. It trains me to rethink how I design.”
Scan the QR Code to visit Alterreal: www.instagram.com/thealterreal
