Nagev, the French environmentally friendly denim brand at IMPACT
Nagev has been presenting its collections at Who's Next for the last ten years now.
In a spirit of positive fashion, the brand was created by three friends with the vision of offering environmentally friendly jeans that are accessible to as many people as possible.
At Who's Next, Samir, one of the brand's co-founders, presented his classic designs and his new collection in IMPACT, a compendium of environmentally friendly fashion. With the return of denim jeans, Nagev is making a conscious statement.
Your brand in just 3 words?
Environmentally friendly, fashion and accessibility.
How’s your fair going?
It's just the start. We never expect a large volume of traffic on Saturdays, but it gives us a chance to see our agents and partners again and to meet agent-distributors. We're particularly interested in international business, as well as reactivating accounts and finding new customers. With COVID, a whole new system is being put in place.
What key trends have you incorporated into your designs this season?
We're a denim brand, so we need permanent styles with classic cuts as well as cuts that can evolve, with very high waists. For example, three years ago we reduced the height of the waist. We work on very specific themes, and this year it's the sacred feminine. As we're an environmentally friendly brand aimed at women, with a core target of 30-50 year-olds, we want to bring a feminine touch to a jeans collection, which isn't always easy. We use laser-printed denim, which we'll be exhibiting at the show, and patchworks on the backs of our jackets, but we also work with velvet, which has to be light and meticulous to achieve a really pretty result.
Is denim making a comeback?
Denim never really went away – you only have to walk down the street to see that 80% of people wear it. It's true that we don't really know what denim means any more. We're struggling with products that are labelled as denim, but which in technical terms aren't really denim at all. We stick to a basic trend, that of denim in terms of its quality, cut and use of materials. The real challenge is to use materials that are not harmful to the planet, through the use of organic cotton, no chemicals and ozone washing, something we’ve been aware of for 4 or 5 years. Denim is still a very complex product.
What advice would you give to a brand exhibiting for the first time?
Firstly, define your objectives clearly: "What is the objective of my fair?” And then proceed on the basis of this objective. If the objective is to gather contacts, you must consider how you can make an impact on your stand, like paying attention to its decoration, highlighting strong items, and sometimes planning items with the show in mind. You need to consider putting products on your stand that will attract professionals.
