By Mari Sato
House music thunders from a DJ booth, shaking the three-floor building. Vibrant abstract paintings hang on the brick walls, and in the center, wooden frames suspend clothing mid-air. The details are meticulous: star studs embellish jeans, red cuff tags contrast white wool coats, and suede jackets feature satin linings.
On the second floor, pamphlets introduce Nostalgia and Noise (N&N), a Dallas-based event brand blending fashion, music, and art. SMU Alum Isis Kazadi, who introduced me to N&N, greets my friends and me. She explains that Alara the Label, their collaborator, blends Mediterranean style with Dallas luxury. Her brother, Ra Kazadi, is behind the floating clothes. Isis recalls, “[Ra] was like ‘the clothes are going to be floating. The vibe is gonna be good.’” He wasn’t wrong.
In a high-ceilinged room, fur-trimmed coats float from the ceiling, each in neutral tones from camel to coffee, with contrasting fur collars and cuffs. We explore an attached room where a powder blue version of the coat hangs. Emerging again, we browse clothing racks along the far wall. I gravitate to the same blue coat– and meet Alara Stuckey Vitello.
Tall, with perfect dirty blonde curls, Alara wears a brown colorway of the coat with a white mini skirt, tights, and platform Mary Janes. She urges me to try on the blue coat and offers to hold my purse. It fits perfectly, the fur collar like a hug. I know I can’t afford it, and she probably does too, but doesn’t seem to care.
Alara the Label fuses Alara’s Texas roots with her mother’s Turkish heritage. The mother-daughter duo started the brand from a mutual love of textiles and fashion artistry. “Everything that we do is handmade by our team of artisans, and they do all old-world techniques,” Alara shares. Their creative process blends personal inspiration with collaboration. Alara draws from natural landscapes, big skies, and warm tones, while her mother is influenced by Istanbul’s bustling streets and Turkey’s oceans.
Their craftsmanship fosters Alara the Label’s commitment to timeless fashion. While “slow fashion” is a buzzword, for Alara, it’s more than just greenwashing. She aims to create garments that “won’t go out of style next season, next year, or even in many years to come.” but this quality comes at a price. “Slow fashion is not only a thoughtful process, but a costly one,” she explains. Jackets range from $995 to $1250, but in the accessible luxury space, they offer high-end craftsmanship and longevity. Alara encourages customers to consider cost-per-wear. As Isis puts it, “You’ve got to girl-math it. If you wear it 100 times, that’s only $10 per wear.”
I run my fingers through the thick fur trim of the baby blue coat I refuse to take off. House music pulses, and the coats above sway to the beat. Alara smiles, “I love that coat, especially on you,” she says. Her words linger, and for a second, I let myself believe she made it just for me.
