Within the traditions of Sephardic and Mizrahi communities, textiles carry memory, ritual, and identity across generations. They hold tales of connections between communities, and of sweetness and resilience within Jewish ones. For her, these stories are the ultimate carriers of hope. Many of the painted motifs in her collection are drawn from old ketubot, potteries and clothes created in a context where craft was a shared language - specifically, in a period where Jewish and Arab artisans created common patterns and visual narratives. The pomegranate (a symbol of protection and prosperity in Jewish cultural and religious thought) recurs throughout Alona’s work both as a motif and as a material. She uses its peel within a natural dye that leaves a soft orange hue and a lingering olfactory trace. She dyes wool in indigo, weaves linen and metal threads, and stitches onto silk with naturally-dyed fibres. Embedding ritual and repetition in her printing and dyeing process connects her to her grandmother’s life in Tunisia, and becomes a method of carrying her heritage forward.

Every piece is made using 100% natural-based fibers and mostly hand painted, printed or dyed with natural pigments. This print practice deliberately rejects harmful synthetic materials that dominate the industry  and embraces its limitations as creative opportunity. Historically, these print and handcraft methods were both a heritage and a survival tool to be passed through generations. Today, the artist sees them as tools for resilience in the face of environmental crisis.

The artist laments that the exiles of the Sephardim from the Middle East and North Africa (and her subsequent location in Europe and the UK) means that she will never truly be able to experience the worlds of her previous generations. Her work effectively recreates the memories that she’s borrowed, which she then infuses with her own modern experiences to create a contemporary continuation of her lineage.

For the collection, Alona collaborated with Raz Akta — one of the last people to have learned traditional Yemeni Jewish silversmithing pre-displacement. It is crucial for her to be in continuous dialogue with other craftsmen that are working towards the survival of parts of this culture and history.

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Alona Nelly Cohen is a French and Swiss London-based fashion designer, CSM BA Fashion Print graduate and Maison/0 Green Trail Winner 2025 who explores her Sephardic ancestry and culture through print and textiles. She is currently at Burberry, and has worked in print design at Marine Serre for seasonal collections and for the Paris-based interior design studio Laura Gonzalez. 

With immense gratitude to Rabbi Mendy and Hadasa Korer, Abi Joy Samuel, Salomé Jacques, Nicole Zisman, Kat Rose, Josh Mond, Bruno Grad, Charlotte Goodhart, Aurelie Freoua and Nimrod Vardi. 

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