Inside Soho's Alta - 'a reaction to the current state of fashion in London'

Bringing designers closer to customers is the aim of a Soho fashion store which launched this year.

Alta was founded by five independent designers - SBA, Matilda Little, This Belongs To, Timna Weber and Elif - and is a space and community to help brands grow.

After lockdown, the designers wanted to sell their designs in person so ID Pop Up was created, and the permanent Alta store followed in March 2023, in Great Windmill Street, Soho.

Alta store offers bespoke pieces and upcycling brands made in small batches, often by the designers themselves. The majority of the brands are UK based, but you can also find items from Mexico, USA, Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Spain and Ukraine.

Founding member Timna Weber said: "Alta was founded as a reaction to the current state of fashion in London. With the majority of stores dominated by big-name brands, there was little opportunity for small and local designers to find a permanent place to sell their products and connect to customers in a different way. Alta store is operated by designers for designers and therefore we understand the challenges going through when starting a brand."

Asked about the possibility of sales, she said: “We operate with a more seasonless approach. We don't work in the traditional way where one season's collection is being replaced by a new collection, but our product selection is growing organically."

Alta's team hand-pick all items and add new products every few weeks, and Timna said: "When we come across an interesting brand. Working in a seasonless way allows us to keep the value of our products as we don't follow traditional sales and thus avoid replacing ‘old’ collections with new ones. We follow our own rhythm and don't feel the need to push out new collections consistently, to then go on sale when they’re no longer ‘in trend’."

She said the aim of the store is to "bring our designers closer to our customers".

"As we know most of our designers in person, we can provide a more personal shopping experience," she said. "It is important for us to know the designers who make the products and where they are made. We want to bring the designer's stories closer to our customers."

Alta's has an online shop and is on Instagram.