Long before Camila Alves ever set foot on a red carpet, or had paparazzi on her heels, the former Shear Genius host was a model. It was only a matter of time before Alves followed in the footsteps of model greats Cindy Crawford and Heidi Klum, transforming into a fashion forward mother and designer. Muxo, Alves’ handbag line, was created alongside her mother, and draws inspiration from her travels across the globe, pairing soft leathers in a subtle and striking color palette.
theFashionSpot: The colors are just incredible. Soft blushes, muted purple…
Camila Alves: I was a little bit like “oh, purple.” It’s fun but it’s not over the top.
tFS: These bags are great accents to complete an outfit! Just the right amount of flare.
CA: That’s the whole point of the bag. You don’t need to have a thousand accessories; if you have your outfit, it can be as simple as jeans and a t-shirt, or it can be very sophisticated. You put on the handbag and it will close the outfit.
tFS: Is it hard to design for such a large audience?
CA: One thing that I really wanted to keep, was that sometimes when you go to do things for the masses, the quality of the leather – of the product – doesn’t stay the same, and we really worked hard to have the leather be as good, to have a great touch. The handbags are light, we use a linen lining, it’s very sophisticated and clean. We have a great product. I’m excited about it!
tFS: What’s it like designing with your mom?
CA: We work together, we do everything together. My mom is the one who went to school for that so she has about three design degrees. She went to three different schools for it, she’s like the expert, she can do everything from beginning to end. All the stages. I learn a lot with her. We do everything together, I’ll do a trip and I’ll tell her the colors that I saw or the things that I saw and then she’ll come up with an idea. I’m really good with closing the product. We balance it off of each other, we do everything together, in terms of creating the handbag. It’s fun and it’s great, but it’s also very tricky.
tFS: Do you ever butt heads when designing?
CA: Yeah, we work great together, but of course, we do butt heads. We’re mother and daughter, that’s gotta happen.
tFS: We love seeing your glamorous looks on the red carpet. Did any celebrities influence this line?
CA: No, because the line doesn’t come from anybody. It doesn’t come from me or from my mother or an actress or an actor. It doesn’t come from that. The line comes from places that I’ve been, it’s a lot of inspiration from nature. A lot of colors are earth tones, darts, and the stitching. A lot of the stuff is mostly inspired by trips. Brazil, New York, Grand Canyon. I don’t really follow what trend is out there, what people are doing. We basically go on what we like and what we saw, and think we should share with people. We put it out there.
Muxo handbags are available at mymuxo.com.
