“Bourgeois grunge” was the headline at Sandra Sandor’s hybrid presentation/show for Nanushka, the young brand that counts north of 350,000 followers and fans including Kaia Gerber. During Paris Fashion Week, the young supermodel appeared on the brand’s Instagram wearing a vegan leather blazer from Nanushka’s resort collection as she dashed from one backstage to the next. (Matthias Geerts also appears wearing the Hide jacket).
On the subject of vegan leather—worked variously for fall in glossy, fluid trousers, jackets, shoes, and a new knot bag — the designer explained that her leather is half faux, and half recycled, and regenerated from scraps thanks to a special technology. “It’s a great alternative to virgin resources,” she noted, adding that using faux leather in this way has just one-third the impact of real leather. One of the most compelling looks was a mixed-material trench, made of regenerated leather spliced together with tweed made from GRS-certified post-consumer polyester. Fully 52% of this collection is sustainably produced, Sandor added.
Elsewhere, the designer set about juxtaposing intellectual bourgeois classics with the rebellious spirit of grunge, the trend that got her hooked on fashion in the first place. Nonetheless the collection skewed more ’70s than ’90s, with easy pieces like elongated tunic tops, a crocheted overlay, wide, contrasting lapels on a blazer, or a wrap dress with painterly stripes. Easy, tailored pieces are exactly what Nanushka’s base shops her New York store in search of; in the weeks ahead, fans in London will be able to do likewise at the brand’s new store in Bruton Street, Mayfair (the e-commerce site has been streamlined too, of late).
New this season was a collaboration with the London-based jewelry brand Alighieri, with nine Brutalist-inspired pieces that “examine what it means to be a woman in modern society,” the show notes explained. That’s a whole lot to expect from a cuff whose job is to sit there and look pretty—which it did perfectly well.
