Ally Capellino, designer of mens and womens leather bags, belts and accessories.
Alison Lloyd was born in Surrey in 1956. She spent her childhood in Dublin and Yorkshire and in her teens started remixing old Vogue patterns and sewing clothes for herself. Despite the fact that she thought a career in fashion was too flighty and “not really serious enough,” by 1975 she had completed an art foundation course and had enrolled at Middlesex University to study fashion and textiles.
In 1980 Ally Capellino was launched selling hats and jewellery, designed with her then partner Jono Platt. To commemorate the Moscow Olympics and the controversy surrounding it that year they designed a “slightly rebellious” five-piece collection and their women’s wear label was accidentally born. Throughout the 1980s the Ally Capellino, Hearts of Oak and ao diffusion lines established a reputation for deceptively simple, modern yet timeless clothes for men, women and children. During the 1990s a pioneering partnership with Coats Viyella established groundbreaking design consultancy and licensing agreement, and she was among the first generation of British designers to achieve success in Japan where she opened several own-brand stores.
In 2000, after a restructuring of the business Ally went back to her accessory design roots. The design studio now concentrates on producing two seasonal bag collections for men and women as well as an ongoing Classics Collection. Prestigious collaborations with the art and design worlds are most notably the Tate Modern and Apple Inc.
