Ayla Anderson: from fashion student to local designer

“You’ve got to think about all stages, like how long your product will last and then what’s going to happen to it.”

Ayla Anderson is a fashion student, stylist, and emerging designer based in Magandjin/Meanjin, Brisbane. In our interview, we talked about her start in fashion, her inspirations and approach to fashion design, as well as her brand,  Also Known As.

Q1) How did you get into the fashion scene? 

Ayla: I started studying fashion, so I met a lot of people through that [but] for me, studying fashion is like a networking thing. So, of course, you make amazing friends but it’s the people that [you’re] meeting right now and working with [who] are going to be in the industry when we all graduate.

When Brisbane Fashion Week came up, [there was] a volunteering opportunity. There’s a stylist called Houston and he was sort of running all of backstage and all the volunteers and everything. He had a friend who is a friend of mine who was like, ‘they need extra volunteers, do you guys want to come?’ I was like, yeah, I can do this.

We ended up doing these like menial kind of tasks and then…Houston was like ‘I know I can trust you’…so I ended up kind of managing other things and stuff just in that one night.

Q2) Who would be some of your fashion influences?

Ayla: If there’s like one person in terms of fashion that’s influenced me a lot who’s at the top, and it’s a very, very typical answer…but I watched the McQueen documentary [a] long time ago and I think I’ve watched it probably every month since then.

I [also] really like what KidSuper is doing. I like his clothing, but I think more than his clothing. I just really like his approach to design and he’s very much somebody who is so himself and his brand is so invigorated with him. That’s kind of what I want mine (Also Known As) to be as well.

Q3) With talks of sustainability enveloping the fashion industry now more than ever, how has this influenced your approach to fashion design? 

Ayla: It’s really interesting because when I was going through school and doing homework, it wasn’t in the conversation...maybe a little bit in terms of good materials versus bad materials…[but] nothing [more] was ever really talked about.

I think for me, design is very much my number one thing like [with] self-expression and experimentation but sometimes it is a conflicting thing because it can stifle that in terms of using the right fabrics.

It’s been a really big learning curve in terms of actually creating a garment and thinking what’s going to happen to that garment eventually, but I think the tricky thing is, most sustainable fashion doesn’t exist. If you wanted to be completely sustainable in creating fashion, you wouldn’t create fashion.

Making any garment means it’s eventually going to end up in landfill…there are so many clothes in the world [and] we don’t need any more, right? So, if you’re creating, there has to be purpose for it...I think it needs to be a really big aspect of  everyone’s kind of design philosophy.

Q4) And finally, what’s next? 

Ayla: I would ideally like to work my way up in a brand. So possibly end up designing for a bigger brand that’s already existing whilst also building Also Known As. I kind of like want to do both at the same time. I think having complete creative control is important for an artist and you can only really do that with your own stuff.

Find Ayla below:

Instagram: @akattack_
Brand: @___alsoknownas___ 

Interview & images by Editor in Chief, Jireh Gil Jalipa for Rosario Journal Issue 03 (2024)