Aliyah Bah, higher generally known as Aliyah’s Interlude, has already hit quite a few profession milestones: She created her personal trending aesthetic, #Aliyahcore; has sat entrance row at main New York Style Week exhibits; and carried out at music festivals together with Lollapalooza and OutLoud. However there’s yet another factor she knew she wished to realize earlier than she dies.
“I’ve all the time instructed myself, ‘I cannot go away this earth with out having a style model,'” she tells Fashionista. Take into account that purpose achieved: On Tuesday, the musician and style influencer launched her clothes line, Fabtopia. “Style to me is my favourite type of artwork,” she shares. “Having the ability to principally channel that into one thing that I can share with my viewers was all the time one thing that I actually, actually wished to do.”
Photograph: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
Fabtopia takes her #Aliyahcore aesthetic — which Bah describes as various, eclectic and daring — and packages it into clothes that’s accessible to everybody. Ranging in measurement from XS-3X, the inaugural assortment contains leg heaters, purses and 4 crop-top and mini-skirt units, all priced between $30 and $60 on shopfabtopia.com.
Bah began the event course of two years in the past after seeing different manufacturers co-opt her picture. It was her dad who inspired her to take motion: “[He] was like, ‘I really feel like these manufacturers are making a lot cash off you; it’s best to simply begin your personal model. These ladies actually love the way in which you gown,'” Bah remembers. “He was the one who instructed me that and put that battery in my again that had me considering, ‘Okay, that you must lock the fuck in.'”
The primary order of enterprise was touchdown on a model identify. It wasn’t straightforward to discover a sturdy one which wasn’t already trademarked. Finally, Barbie’s “Fairytopia” — Bah’s favourite childhood film — and McDonald’s’ discontinued Fruitopia drink — her go-to after-school beverage — emerged as surprising sources of inspiration.
Photograph: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
“I’ve so many reminiscences with the phrase ‘utopia’ in it, and I used to be like, ‘What do I say so much to that’s cunt?’ Clearly I can’t use ‘cunt’ as a result of that’d be loopy. However I say ‘fab’ so much. So I made a decision on Fabtopia. It’s a utopia of fabulousness.”
Then got here time to create the debut assortment: an extension of Bah’s Aliyahcore aesthetic that will additionally, crucially, permit area for individuals to precise their very own individuality. “My model ethos is all about acceptance, loving your physique and simply being actually fabulous,” she emphasizes. “Going in opposition to the grain and sporting issues which can be tremendous daring and eclectic and designing with that in thoughts — and [to] really cease caring about notion — was actually my largest factor.”
Her moodboard was largely made up of photographs of lady teams, together with Okay-pop stars and the Spice Ladies. Regardless of being too younger to expertise the latter at their peak (“My data of the Spice Ladies got here from the film ‘Hen Little,'” she laughs.), she loves how every singer had a definite character and elegance, but nonetheless appeared collectively cohesive and “fab.”
Fabtopia’s debut marketing campaign.
Photograph: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
Fabtopia’s inaugural assortment channels that “lady group” vitality through matching units that each stand out individually and complement one another. “I need this to be one thing that you would be able to put on along with your ladies and exit, and other people be like, ‘Oh, y’all all look so cute.’ Not only one individual within the group, however all people appears to be like cute,” Bah says.
Measurement inclusivity was additionally a non-negotiable model pillar for Bah. She’s witnessed firsthand how unaccommodating the style trade is to thicker our bodies. Fabtopia challenges that hole head-on by providing as much as measurement 3X. And opposite to what less-inclusive manufacturers like to say, it wasn’t tough or terribly pricey to supply prolonged sizes.
“Plus-size ladies should look stunning as fuck in each single factor that they put on,” she says. “Lots of manufacturers do the cop-out factor the place it’s like, ‘Oh, we will’t make this many sizes’ and all that stuff. However I really feel like, in 2026, it’s only a lie. It’s actually a lie as a result of it wasn’t that onerous to get greater sizes. You simply need to be actually intentional about measuring and ensuring it matches greater ladies’s our bodies correctly.”
And intentional, Bah was: She spent months sending samples backwards and forwards from the manufacturing unit till the match was excellent. She additionally taught herself each facet of the enterprise, from company jargon to revenue margins to creating croquis to speaking with producers (all because of one of the best instructor there’s: YouTube). “I by no means wish to be the kind of one that goes into an trade with none set of expertise and simply tries to have a fast cash seize,” she shares. “I wished to be actually intentional about my getting style training proper.”
Photograph: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
That considerate mentality trickled into her advertising ways as effectively: Bah intentionally spotlighted Black ladies and plus-size fashions in Fabtopia’s first marketing campaign.
“In the case of various style, numerous Black ladies usually are not within the advertising, the design course of and even within the picture shoots or social media,” she says. “Fabtopia will 100% be placing Black ladies first by means of all of it, though this can be a model for everyone.”
This determination isn’t only a performative money-grab: Behind the scenes, Bah despatched 90% of Fabtopia’s PR packages to Black influencers. She additionally labored with a Black photographer and producer to deliver the marketing campaign to life. “Girls of colour should see themselves within the forefront,” she provides. “We should be various and see ourselves in that mild.”
Already, Bah has plans for the place she needs to take Fabtopia sooner or later. Runway exhibits, neighborhood occasions and a standalone retailer are on her imaginative and prescient board.
“I actually, actually, actually wish to have an even bigger impression in order that my garments usually are not nearly shopping for stuff,” she says. “It’s extra about getting into a universe and a tradition of queer pleasure, Black pleasure, various Black lady pleasure and various queer lady pleasure. I actually, actually, really need it to have an effect on tradition.”
