Freddy Coomes and Matt Empringham, the young British designers behind the new womenswear label Aletta, were raised on the Internet. “We didn’t grow up going to designer shops—the first experiences we had with fashion, with a capital F, were through a phone,” says Coomes. In their first collection, which debuted on Instagram this past March, the duo blurred the line between the real and virtual worlds. Voluminous skirts, trousers, and dresses in heavy cotton and crisp organdy appear 2D, while 3D-printed paper brogues and sneakers look as if they’ve been lifted from a cartoon.
Although they’re just one 14-piece collection in, Coomes, 23, and Empringham, 24, have long tackled materiality and geometry. They met in college, at Central Saint Martins, while working on a group project. The duo collaborated throughout the pandemic, then interned with Jonathan Anderson—Coomes at Loewe, the Spanish house that Anderson led for 11 years, and Empringham at the designer’s namesake label, JW Anderson. Instead of securing jobs at those houses, they launched their own brand at the end of 2024. The rationale, explains Empringham, “was as simple as, ‘If we’re going to do it, let’s do it now.’ ” They named the brand after Coomes’s mother. “It spoke to women in our lives influencing and being part of what the brand is,” says Coomes. “Being two guys designing women’s clothes, that relationship needs to be ongoing,” adds Empringham.
Model Camille Desjardins.
Coomes grew up in London, while Empringham was raised in High Wycombe, “quite a normal town” about an hour outside the city. “Britishness is so multifaceted, but it’s become so clouded with stereotypes of heritage,” says Empringham, referring to tropes like tweed flat caps and Barbour jackets. “We want to create an authentic response to the country we know.” Their inspirations range from paintings by the English impressionist Laura Knight—the way her garments look literally frozen in time—to British craft culture. Take their brogues, which they produced using 3D-sculpture patterns found on homecraft websites. “You can understand how our clothes are made,” says Coomes. “It’s not like you’re looking at an Alaïa dress.”
Model Isabella Pascucci.
Some of Aletta’s offerings qualify more as objets d’art than as wearable garments. The collection includes an aluminum shirt and tie that echoes the stiffness and proportions of a wall organizer. The designers were inspired by Meccano toys—England’s more complex version of Legos—to make the garments, laser-cutting individual sheets of aluminum, painting them, then fixing panels together with screws. They created an aluminum Carhartt-inspired workwear jacket using the same technique. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to actually work in it.
Model Shi.
And yet the pair can toe the line between the experimental and the commercial. Last year, before their brand officially launched, the celebrity stylist Harry Lambert commissioned them to design dresses for the actors Sienna Miller and Emma Corrin. Miller attended a pre–Met Gala party in a boxy, forest green minidress with a massive paper lily on the shoulder, stamen and all; Corrin showed up to Good Morning America in a playful drop-waist polo dress with an oversize bow on the front. A version of their polo dress is available at Dover Street Market Ginza. (Their own e-store is coming soon.)
“There is pressure to make clothes that are commercial, but if you say there’s pressure to make clothes that people want to wear, all of a sudden it sounds like a very different sentence,” says Coomes. “There should be a pressure to make clothes that people want to wear. Otherwise you’re just doing it for no reason, and you’re not speaking to anyone.”
Aletta designers Freddy Coomes (left) and Matt Empringham, in London.
As of now, the pair intends to keep the brand a two-man team. For young designers, “very quickly, the clothes become one thing, the brand becomes another, and there’s no communication between the two of them,” says Empringham. Friction “is good for us,” says Coomes. “It makes us think a bit more about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.” They are also content to take things one step at a time, prioritizing their craft over expansion. “We’re really cautious of creating something that grows outside of our control,” says Empringham. “I don’t think we have a particular goal of ‘This is where we want to be in five years.’ It’s more of ‘This is how we want to feel in five years.’ ” Coomes agrees, adding, “It’d be so boring if we had to do the same stuff forever. The idea is that we definitely can keep getting better.”
Hair by Claire Grech for Mr. Smith at Streeters; Makeup by Rebecca Wordingham for Lancôme at MA Group; Models: Camille Desjardins at NEXT Management, Isabella Pascucci at Milk Model Management, Linna Shi at The Industry Model Mgmt; Casting by Ashley Brokaw Casting; Produced by DoBeDo Represents; Photo Assistants: Joe Reddy, Abena Appiah; Digital Technician: Paola Ristoldo; Fashion Assistants: Emma Govey, Myles Mansfield; Hair Assistant: Erika Neumann; Makeup Assistant: Matilde Ribau. Opposite, top left: PASCUCCI WEARS STYLIST’S OWN SHOES.
