“Simplicity rather than minimalism,” is what the team at Nehera were aiming for this season, said Ladislav Zdút on a call from Bratislava. They achieved that in spades—and also provided my fashion mantra for 2023.
Simplicity is the one of the most difficult things to achieve in any field, including fashion. It requires clarity, restraint, innovation; essentially it’s about making more with less (which, overall, is the approach that must be adopted to save the planet). The focus at Nehera is always on interpretive tailoring which tends toward the informal; for pre-fall there are quilted coats made, unexpectedly, from haberdashery fabric. The skirt suit is making a return and here it comes with a midi. Alongside trench coats, including one in a coated red fabric, there’s a cutaway trench dress.
For a while now Nehera has been playing with the idea of clothing-as-accessory. It’s there in the styling, and add-ons like a one-armed half poncho, and built into some of the garments, including pants and vests with pleated panels. Knits are a focus and the striped ones (like a bra that was styled over a shirt and under a jacket) were cousins of the “broken stripe” print on a shirt dress that Zdút described as having an “’80s volume.” That decade is getting a lot of play. I suppose you could say that Nehera’s insistence on equating feminism with feminity, and its focus on work-friendly design, are somewhat aligned with that decade, but this is not a retro collection. Rather it paves the way forward for a new look, one that’s easy but polished, and delivers simplicity with a bit of pizazz.
