Alex Rita

About Alex -

I'm Alex Rita, which is short for Alexandra and also my great grandmother's name. I grew up in the Danish countryside - my childhood was full of nature, animals, crisp clean air and vegetables from our garden. I moved to London by myself when I was 23, as I felt a strong need to live in a more culturally diverse society. I always felt very othered at home.
Having firmly found my feet after seven years in the city, I now run a dance, radio show, and concert series alongside my boyfriend, Errol, under the name Touching Bass. Touching Bass has become a growing community centered around soulful music and togetherness with an open-heart-open-minded mentality at its core. Home is where the heart is!

 

 

 

Outside of Touching Bass, I have my own monthly radio show which explores the repetitive, meditational side of sound. It's called Calm Roots and I started the show at the end of 2019 because I had been DJing a lot and missed digging for other types of music. I LOVE music that makes me dance but I had started to feel a bit restricted.
As 2020 turned out to be this incredibly dispiriting year, it really helped me through the low periods. It felt like I unintentionally timed the show's arrival perfectly. Being homebound for many months during lockdown, it became the soundtrack to my creativity which is why I've simultaneously named the brand/clothes I make for myself and my friends Calm Roots.

 

I started making my own clothes for many reasons. I'm 180cm (or 5'11") tall, so a lot of clothes don't fit me well. I got tired of things always being too short or too tight. When I moved to London I had very little money but LOADS of time (to learn how to sew) and I've always made stuff with my hands, so when I started I guess it came very naturally to me.
I would buy second hand clothes in my local market and take them apart. Seeing each piece separately lying flat, it quickly became very logical as to how to make the different shapes and put them together.

When you start making your own clothes, you realise the time it takes to make, let's say, a simple pair of trousers. You also realise how insanely screwed our society's relationship is with shopping/fast fashion. We are so far removed from the process of how most of the things we buy are made, which I think is how we easily justify paying only £10.00 for a shirt; something that actually takes hours to make even in a big factory with many people working.

I appreciate garments in a whole different way now because I know the time and skill that it takes to make them. It's also just so satisfying to be able to make your own clothes. Equally if I do decide to buy something that someone else has made, I'm willing to spend more on it. I'm paying for the time it took to be made and for the quality. I'm all about quality. I love things that last!

 

 

Listen to Calm Roots