For more than a decade now, Sandra Sandor has been quietly building her brand at home in Budapest, where she has a flagship concept store. It wasn’t long before retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Browns, and Net-a-Porter caught on. Now, with new investors and Sandor’s fiancé, Peter Baldaszti, as CEO, Nanushka is poised to go global—notably by opening a store on Wooster Street in New York this fall. And where better than Paris to say it to the world?
“Nanushka has always stood for practicality, functionality, and comfort—that was even the theme of my college thesis [at the London College of Fashion],” the designer said in an interview during her presentation. “I really think that good design has to be functional as well. The clothes I wear most are the ones I feel really easy in.” Her constant inspirations include Bauhaus, distant cultures, and tribal references transposed for an urban context.
For Spring the designer looked to Greece through a very specific style prism: the summer of 1972, when Loulou de la Falaise was photographed in Patmos wearing a simple swath of fabric as a turban, for example. That translated into elevated basics in sun-washed colors of organic cotton and jersey. Workhorse pieces included vegan-leather jackets, fringed trousers in organic cotton, and travel-friendly separates in tech linen. One could almost picture the French style icon in a lime dress that had all the ease of a sari, or the printed, draped halter neck and woven skirt. Although most of the oversized bags pictured here are not intended for retail (yet), they point to Nanushka’s ambitions in accessories. Sandor has a taste for handicrafts, which she put to work here in fringe, fishnet overlays, and ceramic buttons produced in the Hungarian village of Terény by a cooperative that strives to help women hone their skills and earn a living through traditional crafts. As for the massive macramé hanging made just for this event, Sandor is considering repurposing it for her upcoming nuptials next May. The year 2020 is shaping up to be a milestone for this little brand—it will be interesting to see what happens next.
