A local designer finds success across fashion channels!
Christian Allana grew up in Chattanooga taking art classes and always creating. At 12, her artistic prowess turned toward fashion, and she asked her parents for a sewing machine. With it, she began taking her mother and grandmother’s old clothes and repurposing them into new pieces. She also began customizing her own clothes. “I just wanted to wear things no one else had,” she says. After graduating high school, Allana moved to Atlanta to attend SCAD where she earned a fashion design degree in 2012. She landed her first job as a design assistant at JCPenney in Dallas where she worked on corporate womenswear and learned the business side of the fashion world. In September 2016, she moved back to Atlanta to become a designer at Buckhead-based Carter’s, where she still works. Along with her 9- to-5 design work, Allana also creates formal wear for private clients and is a part of SHEIN X, a design incubator in which retailer SHEIN works with indie fashion designers to bring their creations to market. Here, Allana shares more insight into her creative pursuits.
What do you like most about being a fashion designer in Atlanta?
I love how unique and diverse Atlanta is. There are so many people here in the design field, and having that community is amazing. Also, everyone is so different. Designers all have their own niche that is very distinctively them, so I love that everyone doesn’t look the same and neither does their work.
Despite working full-time, have you always designed privately as well?
I love having creative outlets, since in corporate design you have parameters to follow with a specific clientele and budget to keep in mind. I participated in Charleston Fashion Week and was able to create an entire collection from scratch, from sketching and making the patterns to sewing the pieces, and it was such a joy to have the only boundaries be my own imagination. I also love eveningwear, so having bridal and prom clients is how I get to express that side of my creativity.
How did you get involved with the SHEIN X program, and how does it work?
I discovered the program through one of my fellow SCAD graduates, and I knew it would be an amazing way to help grow my business. I applied and was invited to be a part of the program, and since then I have dropped four different collections that are shoppable on shein.com. As a SHEIN X designer, I have access to a fabric library, and utilizing that, I sketch and submit my exact designs to the SHEIN team. They make selections from there, and then the collection is produced and launched.
What’s left that you still want to explore?
I really want to explore having an online boutique where I have some items that I curate from other vendors that fit my aesthetic alongside selling my original Christian Allana Collection ready-to-wear designs.
christianallana.com
@christianallana
PHOTO: Joann Vitelli
