Nanushka Celebrates 20 Years While Looking Toward the Future

For Nanushka creative director Sandra Sándor, New York City has been a setting for many “firsts:” First international fashion week presentation, first U.S. retail location (opened in 2019) and, now, first New York Fashion Week runway show. 

“I think [New York] is an authentic place for us to show because a lot of the Nanushka community are from New York and the States,” the Budapest-based designer tells Fashionista. “I think this will even maybe strengthen this connection.”

When Nanushka held its debut NYFW presentation for Fall 2018, press and tastemakers raved about the then-small brand that expertly merged Eastern and Western cultures. Celebrities such as Gigi Hadid and Charlize Theron gave Nanushka their stamps of approval as the brand gained a global presence.

It had every reason to stick to what was working, but Sándor envisioned something different: The brand quietly took a step back from the NYFW calendar (though it made appearances during Paris Fashion Week), and has spent the past few years redefining its identity. In 2019, for example, Nanushka introduced menswear. 

Its return to NYFW for Spring 2025 highlights the brand’s growth and 20th anniversary. Sándor has been very intentional with the pieces that appeared on the runway

“Since it’s an anniversary collection, I really wanted to incorporate the brand values strongly,” she said. “We launched a new identity with all these symbols called Kopjafa symbols, which are like 16th-century Hungarian and Transylvania heritage symbols that have been specially handpicked.”

The brand values in question are craft, comfort, functionality and “new heritage.” The latter references how Nanushka is putting its Hungarian roots in a modern context. For Spring 2025, it achieves this through its play on hand-craftsmanship: “We gave the collection name ‘Paper’ because I really love to work with handicraft and this human touch is always a really important aspect for me…There’s another symbolic layer, which is the idea of turning the page. The way I see this 20th anniversary and what it means to me, I feel like this [honors] the past 20 years of Nanushka, but I’m also thinking of: How is Nanushka going to be relevant in the next 20 years. The collection is turning the page for the future.” 

A major component of ushering in this newness was collaborating with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson as lead stylist: “I really love some of her previous works, and I also love her vibrant character,” Sándor said of the fashion creative. “The reason I really wanted to work with her is because I knew that she could really give this new perspective, with the styling, onto our anniversary collection. It’s a [balance] of having not only an element of newness but also highlighting these past 20 years.”

“What’s always really fun as a stylist is getting into the world of the brand and mind of the creative director and this a very big Nanushka milestone,” Karefa-Johnson told Fashionista of the partnership. “It’s been such a really great process of introducing myself to this season and obviously focusing on the brand vision for this specific moment while also honoring the 20-year history and DNA of this really storied and beautiful brand. And then finding a way to twist and infuse a little bit of that stylist zhuzh.”

There are still founding elements the collection holds true to: As a brand centered in conscious creativity, Sándor predominantly works with low-impact fabrics including organic cotton and its trademarked Okobor leather. More than anything though, Sándor wants Nanushka to be a brand consumers hold on to for years to come.

“To me, sustainability is beauty in the sense that [the clothes] should be what you end up wearing for a longer time,” she said. “Having durability is when something is truly sustainable. Otherwise, you might say something is super sustainable, but if you don’t love it, then it will end up in the landfill anyway.”

See every look from Nanushka Spring 2025 below.

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Source: Fashionista.com