Chopova Lowena Turns Up The Volume With Sony And The New Alto Bag

We live in a post-Covid world that - let’s face it - is no longer arranged to see young, independent fashion brands glide gracefully to success. The odds are less runway, more obstacle course. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, dwindling sales and stockist pick-ups (never mind the Brexit-induced fees that have battered already stretched young business), designers entering the scene must now hustle harder than ever just to keep the lights on. Concrete solutions. No one’s got them. And yet, as the storm clouds thicken, those who know how to build a full-spectrum brand universe - core community, watertight identity, evergreen products - stand a far better chance of keeping their boat afloat.

Take Chopova Lowena, founded by Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena in 2017. The duo - the makers of fashion’s most coveted kilts (sorry, Scotland) - have perfected the formula. Their charm-heavy, repurposed fabrics, and puckish punk-folk aesthetic have not only carved a very specific, Chopova-Lowena-shaped trench in London’s fashion landscape, but also brought in a haul of accolades: several industry awards, the British Fashion Council/British Vogue Fashion Fund, and, crucially, a global fanbase. It helps that they’ve turned their idiosyncrasies into commercially magnetic product: carabiner kilts, yes, but also bags, perfume, scented candles, and a steady flow of collaborations.

The latest notch in their belt? The Alto bag, created with Sony and designed specifically to carry the tech giant’s WH-1000XM6 headphones. The partnership is as unexpected as it is oddly logical. Who made the first move? ‘Sometimes it doesn’t matter who made the first move,’ they tell Grazia. ‘Moves were made, and we ended up really happy together, and the Alto Bag was born! The end.’

The Alto borrows from the brand’s existing Sofia bag (‘ a bag made to hold all of your girlhood essentials in a fun way’), and adds a practical twist: it holds as much on the outside as on the inside, thanks to the Sony headphones attachment. ‘We were excited by how much freedom we had to design fun accessories like the singing girl charm and clashing tartans. Designing it was fun and easy in a way because we felt an intrinsic need to have amazing headphones with us wherever we go; we are big on music as inspiration,’ they say.

The link clicks into place when you consider their tight-knit ties to the music world. Artists like Nia Archives, Fontaines D.C, and Charli XCX don’t just wear the brand, they bring it on stage. So naturally, music was the invisible third party in the design process. And what was playing on their ears? ‘Addison, the new Fever Ray remix album and Nia Archives,’ they tell me. ‘Of course, we made all of our design decisions with our current playlist blasting through our headphones.’ And what if they were to put on their own festival, who would headline it? ‘Addison Rae would be on at 6, and then System of a Down would headline. It would be a folkloric, strict dress-up code festival where you eat snacks and get drunk, but also feel good the whole time.’

All of which makes their upcoming London Fashion Week show in September feel less like a seasonal presentation and more like the next chapter in an increasingly shrewd, self-sustaining fashion fairytale - kilts, clashing tartans, and now, the perfect soundtrack.

Shop: The Alto Bag

Henrik Lischke is the senior fashion news and features editor at Grazia. Prior to that, he worked at British Vogue, and was junior fashion editor at The Sunday Times Style.