In 2019, 24 hours after making her Met Gala appearance in a custom Mango gown, Sofia Sanchez de Betak touched down in Nepal to help the Bally team in an environmental expedition to clean up Mount Everest. She also got to explore the city of Kathmandu, which became the inspiration for her spring 2023 collection. “I’m not really in a place or time in my life where I want to travel as much. So we went back to that trip for inspiration, and I had all these incredible images of tigers, temples, and flags,” said the designer. “I was going to all the local markets, and I dug around, and I found all these local foods and religious imagery, and it was very inspiring for the collection.”
Some hero prints this season represented traditional Nepalese beliefs. The marigold flower symbolizes that nature already offers complexity and beauty and that precious stones and embellishments are unnecessary. That relates to how Sanchez de Betak wants her clothing to feel—comfortable, light, and wearable in the real world by real women. While the public is used to seeing Sanchez de Betak in glamorous looks walking into the season’s biggest shows, she feels the most comfortable in simple clothes. “I love those souvenir T-shirts you can get at the markets for next to nothing,” she said. “They have a raw design that you can always mix with anything, including printed skirts and dresses from Chufy.”
In another print from the collection she added imagery of temples and mountains onto colorful puffer vests, tailored blazers, and crochet knits. “The prints go back to the DNA of the brand, in terms of the imagery, but shape-wise we are introducing a lot of newer designs with lots of knitwear and crochet tops and skirts, which contrasts with what we normally do,” said Sanchez de Betak. Since her recent move to Mallorca, she’s realized that knitwear is not a one-knit-fits-all situation. Instead, she has come to develop lighter cardigans to layer on top of swimwear for muggy summer days, as well as chunkier knit sets to cozy up near the fire pit when the nights get colder. “We just launched our knitwear from the Patagonia fall 2022 collection, and there were no returns,” she said. “That means the product is doing well, and the customers really like it.”
Unlike other seasons, where Sanchez de Betak, as the face of her brand, models in look book shoots for social media and press assets, she took a step back this season. And you might have noticed that the designer has been absent from her usual spots at Fashion Week this season. She’s decided to focus more on family, mindfulness, and meditation, and her spring offer reflects this recent journey. “The purpose of this collection was to connect with all the wisdom from these cultures that are so different from ours,” she said.
