From interiors to bags

Mrs Tolu Pinheiro has a background in interior decoration, and is keen to emphasise the difference between this and interior design. Interior designers usually go to school to learn, but her decorating skills come from what one might call a natural talent for transforming spaces.

When still in paid employment around 21 years ago, she found herself working in the housing department for an expatriate company. She was tasked with decorating their homes and, having a knack for accessories and putting pieces together, her employer suggested that she pursue this after leaving that job.

Taking on his advice, Mrs Pinheiro opened a shop to sell home accessories – the initial birth of Alari. Alari started with making furniture (all made in Nigeria), and this story is one of how this transformed to making the bags you see today.

This is not to say that home decorating has been left behind, although it is perhaps in a more informal manner now, as Mrs Pinheiro often finds herself walking into people’s homes and imparting ideas on how to better their space.

God’s journey

Alari was not a plan – Mrs Pinheiro will not apologise for calling it God’s journey. It is a spiritual and exciting journey of discovery. Everyday, she does things she has never done before, and she does believe it is through God’s guidance that these things happen and come together in a way that many love and buy.

In the process of building Alari into the brand it is today, Mrs Pinheiro has come to realise just how important our culture is, and in particular, how important vintage aso-oke is.

In every collection are pieces different from what has come before, all focussed on the traditional aso-oke and Nigerian (specifically Yoruba) culture.

Alari for Pinceto, the bag designer that is, has been a 15-year journey, tracing back to antique fairs in Putney where Mrs Pinheiro used to frequent.

From dream to reality

However, their relevance to making bags would not come til around eight years later, when God told her to make bags. The instruction was specific, she was to make bags from old aso-oke, with horn handles.

This took her by complete surprise, as she had never described herself as a “fashionista”. But what human being can ignore God’s request? This does not mean she immediately made the bags we see today, the process not being so linear or quick.

For example, on one of her shopping trips she saw some necklaces that she thought could look good as bag handles, so she bought them.

Then, once in Holy Cross Church in Lagos, she was staring at the beautiful stained-glass windows and felt that she could touch the garments depicted, and could feel that they were velvet.

To Mrs Pinheiro, velvet equates to luxury, so off she went to buy velvet in Bath. We are now at the part of the story where bags begin to be made…

In the meantime, she was making ceramics such as lamps, but she knew that her calling was to focus on these bags.

Her first idea was to pull aso-oke apart and line them with velvet strips, but these bags did not work. Reaching out for help to a younger friend who makes bags, Toun, Mrs Pinheiro then decided to change the position of the velvet tot pipe the edges… and this worked!

Buying bag straps in Marylebone enabled her to create her first bags. So now Alari had a stock of bags, but unfortunately, the owner faced fear that we all certainly have when starting a new venture.

Taking the plunge

One of her best friends, Mrs Yemisi Subair, might not realise how instrumental she was in boosting her confidence. Mrs Subair saw the bags by mistake, one could say, when in the car with Mrs Pinheiro, as she had not yet started selling them.

Her immediate interest in buying was the sign needed! In fact, Mrs Subair loved them so much that she called back later that day to further enquire about pricing… it was not simply an “I love this bag” moment, it was an “I love this bag and I have to have it” one.

And so bag sales began… and a new style was added to the collection. Bucket bags, which also sold successfully.

To this day, one aspect of the bag that Mrs Pinheiro makes sure she does by herself is the handles, ensuring a personal touch on each and every Alari bag.

What Mrs Tolu Pinheiro wants to highlight is that God is in her story. From conception to birth, God is the most significant part of every step in the Alari story.