Aliyah Bah, better known as Aliyah’s Interlude, has already hit a number of career milestones: She created her own trending aesthetic, #Aliyahcore; has sat front row at major New York Fashion Week shows; and performed at music festivals including Lollapalooza and OutLoud. But there’s one more thing she knew she wanted to achieve before she dies.
“I’ve always told myself, ‘I will not leave this earth without having a fashion brand,'” she tells Fashionista. Consider that goal achieved: On Tuesday, the musician and fashion influencer launched her clothing line, Fabtopia. “Fashion to me is my favorite form of art,” she shares. “Being able to basically channel that into something that I can share with my audience was always something that I really, really wanted to do.”
Aliyah Bah in Fabtopia’s inaugural campaign.Photo: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
Fabtopia takes her #Aliyahcore aesthetic — which Bah describes as alternative, eclectic and bold — and packages it into clothing that’s accessible to everyone. Ranging in size from XS-3X, the inaugural collection includes leg warmers, handbags and four crop-top and mini-skirt sets, all priced between $30 and $60 on shopfabtopia.com.
Bah started the development process two years ago after seeing other brands co-opt her image. It was her dad who encouraged her to take action: “[He] was like, ‘I feel like these brands are making so much money off you; you should just start your own brand. These girls really love the way you dress,'” Bah recalls. “He was the one who told me that and put that battery in my back that had me thinking, ‘Okay, you need to lock the fuck in.'”
The first order of business was landing on a brand name. It wasn’t easy to find a strong one that wasn’t already trademarked. Ultimately, Barbie’s “Fairytopia” — Bah’s favorite childhood movie — and McDonald’s’ discontinued Fruitopia drink — her go-to after-school beverage — emerged as unexpected sources of inspiration.
Fabtopia’s debut campaign.Photo: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
“I have so many memories with the word ‘utopia’ in it, and I was like, ‘What do I say a lot to that’s cunt?’ Obviously I can’t use ‘cunt’ because that’d be crazy. But I say ‘fab’ a lot. So I decided on Fabtopia. It’s a utopia of fabulousness.”
Then came time to create the debut collection: an extension of Bah’s Aliyahcore aesthetic that would also, crucially, allow space for people to express their own individuality. “My brand ethos is all about acceptance, loving your body and just being really fabulous,” she emphasizes. “Going against the grain and wearing things that are super bold and eclectic and designing with that in mind — and [to] truly stop caring about perception — was really my biggest thing.”
Her moodboard was largely made up of photos of girl groups, including K-pop stars and the Spice Girls. Despite being too young to experience the latter at their peak (“My knowledge of the Spice Girls came from the movie ‘Chicken Little,'” she laughs.), she loves how each singer had a distinct personality and style, yet still looked collectively cohesive and “fab.”
Fabtopia’s debut campaign.
Photo: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
View the 2 images of this gallery on the original articleFabtopia’s inaugural collection channels that “girl group” energy via matching sets that both stand out individually and complement each other. “I want this to be something that you can wear with your girls and go out, and people be like, ‘Oh, y’all all look so cute.’ Not just one person in the group, but everybody looks cute,” Bah says.
Size inclusivity was also a non-negotiable brand pillar for Bah. She’s witnessed firsthand how unaccommodating the fashion industry is to thicker bodies. Fabtopia challenges that gap head-on by offering up to size 3X. And contrary to what less-inclusive brands like to claim, it wasn’t difficult or extraordinarily costly to offer extended sizes.
“Plus-size women deserve to look beautiful as fuck in every single thing that they wear,” she says. “A lot of brands do the cop-out thing where it’s like, ‘Oh, we can’t make this many sizes’ and all that stuff. But I feel like, in 2026, it’s just a lie. It’s really a lie because it wasn’t that hard to get bigger sizes. You just have to be really intentional about measuring and making sure it fits bigger women’s bodies properly.”
And intentional, Bah was: She spent months sending samples back and forth from the factory until the fit was perfect. She also taught herself every aspect of the business, from corporate jargon to profit margins to creating croquis to communicating with manufacturers (all thanks to the best teacher there is: YouTube). “I never want to be the type of person who goes into an industry without any set of skills and just tries to have a quick money grab,” she shares. “I wanted to be really intentional about my getting fashion education right.”
Fabtopia’s debut campaign.Photo: Bash Benzo/Courtesy of Fabtopia
That thoughtful mentality trickled into her marketing tactics as well: Bah deliberately spotlighted Black women and plus-size models in Fabtopia’s first campaign.
“When it comes to alternative fashion, a lot of Black women are not in the marketing, the design process or even in the photo shoots or social media,” she says. “Fabtopia will 100% be putting Black women first through all of it, although this is a brand for everybody.”
This decision isn’t just a performative money-grab: Behind the scenes, Bah sent 90% of Fabtopia’s PR packages to Black influencers. She also worked with a Black photographer and producer to bring the campaign to life. “Women of color deserve to see themselves in the forefront,” she adds. “We deserve to be alternative and see ourselves in that light.”
Already, Bah has plans for where she wants to take Fabtopia in the future. Runway shows, community events and a standalone store are on her vision board.
“I really, really, really want to have a bigger impact so that my clothes are not just about buying stuff,” she says. “It’s more about entering a universe and a culture of queer joy, Black joy, alternative Black girl joy and alternative queer girl joy. I really, really, really want it to have an impact on culture.”
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