Elle is a Filipino American born in California. Elle graduated from The University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Marine Biology and fulfilled her dreams working on the Big Island of Hawaii in Education and Conservation in Marine Mammals. In 2014, Elle’s path changed, she moved to Los Angeles to help care for her family. In 2017, after four years of sewing and upcycling clothes, Elle started Elle Rali and her journey in Fashion Design.
What inspired you all to create this company?
What inspired me to start this company is the love I have for our environment and the possibility that I can make a difference in one of the biggest polluting industries in the world, Fashion.With a degree in Marine Biology and working with marine mammals and ocean conservation, I realized how unconscious we were in our daily decisions in consumerism and how it affects our envirionment.My mother growing up used to sew a lot, and I used to reconstruct a lot of my clothes back then.About 7 years ago, my mother bought me a sewing machine and I learned how to make clothing from fabric we had around the house; curtains, bedsheets, unwanted clothing.I feel in love with the idea of repurposing and knowing that it was possible to make items look fresh and cool with what we already had. I continued to push the boundaries in fashion with recreating style that was multifunctional, gender neutral, and environmentally responsible.ELLERALI is a fashion brand with a mission to Recreate The Created by upcycling fabric to reduce textile waste.Clothes last a life time, why not continue to use it.Upcycling never looked so fly.
What distinguishes your company and product in the market?
What distinguishes ELLERALI products in the market right now is that it’s unique, fresh, one solution to our environmental crisis, and it looks good!DIY, handmade items, upcycling.. are all terms that if you google it, looks crafty.ELLERALI is here to show you that upcycling never looked so fly, and that fashion can be sustainable, repurposed, multi-funtional, zero waste, gender neutral, and fun all together! By recreating what our earth already has, we are able to reduce the amount of resources and energy to create a new item by scratch.It takes 700 gallons of water to produce 1 cotton t-shirt.Let’s save that water, and recreate from what we already have.
What distinguishes ELLERALI as a company are our values in recreating from what we already have.When I decided to start a fashion brand, I wanted to make sure my vision and passion for our environment was the forefront of it all.I wanted to create with a purpose.I always say that sustainability is my passion and fashion is the medium I decided to use.Being a Marine Biologist first, is what has grounded me to those values.