Alexandra Hackett aka Mini Swoosh

Business of HYPE

HYPEBEAST

Society & Culture

4.8 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alexandra Hackett is the founder of Studio ALCH (short for her name: Alexandra Louise Champion Hackett) and also known by many as "Mini Swoosh." In just a few short years, the brand has shown at London Fashion Week, partnered with global retailers and worked with numerous celebrities from Kendrick Lamar to Frank Ocean. The Australian-born, London based creative creates one-of-a-kind articles of clothing from deconstructed pieces of found material from Nike duffel bags to NASA space foil.

Studio ALCH is the overarching brand that gives fuel to her mission of "exploring the process of deconstruction and reconstruction to extend the lifespan of pre-existing products." Her personal brand, Mini Swoosh, dives into the more experimental side of her deconstructive projects, whilst giving homage to the brand Nike—which has heavily inspired her design career. In this episode, Alex details her early career from working in the sneaker retail space to participating in 2017's Nike Vote For You competition to creating her brand. She reminds us of the importance of sustainability and how the "best thing to do with fashion is to make nothing new at all."

Thank you so much for tuning into the Business of HYPE. As always, thank you for tuning into HYPEBEAST Radio and Business of HYPE. Please don't forget to rate, comment and subscribe to our other shows. This episode was recorded prior to COVID-19 with the interludes recorded during. We hope you guys stay safe, wash your hands, practice social distancing and find ways to still stay inspired during this time.

For more info: https://hypebeast.com/2020/6/alex-hackett-studio-alch-mini-swoosh-interview-business-of-hype-jeffstaple-episode-77

https://www.instagram.com/studioalch/

https://www.instagram.com/miniswoosh/

https://www.a-l-c-h.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From Hypeast Radio, I'm Jeff Staples, and this is the business of hype, a show about creative entrepreneurs, brand builders, innovators, and the realities behind the dreams they've built.
0:43.3	Today's guest on the business of hype is an up-and-coming young Enigma. She's a multifaceted designer known for her deconstructed and repurposed beautifully tailored pieces.
0:50.3	But her mission is unique.
0:52.3	She actually wants to extend the lifespan of pre-existing product.
0:58.6	Today, you are going to learn about the future of fashion and design from,
1:03.4	hold up, I feel like her name deserves a drum roll.
1:06.9	You ready?
1:08.1	Alexandra Louise Champion Hackett.
1:11.8	Yes, that's her real name.
1:13.0	And her initials make up the name of her label, Studio A-L-C-H.
1:17.8	But many of you might simply know her as mini-swoosh.
1:22.0	Her work is an amalgamation of materials from Nike Techware to duffel bags to windscreen protectors to NASA space foil,
1:30.3	you name it, and she's most likely used it and flipped it into a new reusable product.
1:36.3	The Australian-born London-based designer hasn't even hit five years in the industry yet,
1:41.3	but she's left an impressive mark, having already worked with
1:45.1	the likes of Pata, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean. In that very short amount of time, she
1:50.5	has also shown at London Fashion Week, and she was even in Nike's 2017 vote forward campaign
1:56.5	to design a custom Nike AirMax. Alex has a keen sense of design being able to breathe life into anything, and I literally mean anything.
2:06.6	Studio ALCH and her personal work, Miniswush, are more than just re-upolstered designs.
2:12.6	They represent a new direction of sustainable fashion, and we get to witness as she
2:18.5	rewrites the rules for fashion design and as she says herself the best thing to
2:24.4	do with fashion is to maybe make nothing new at all so let's get into this
	...

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