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The atmosphere at Namilia’s Berlin studio is unusually calm for the day before a fashion show: the racks of samples are neatly sorted, the looks are categorised by model, and the team is casually applying the finishing touches while playing with the two office puppies.
The clubwear brand, co-founded by Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl in 2015, is gearing up for its third Berlin Fashion Week show, fresh from a collaboration with Kylie Jenner’s brand Khy that has boosted awareness on a global scale. Namilia began making a name for itself through provocative moments, like when pornstars walked the runway in New York for AW20 or when Hermès tried (and failed) to put a stop to a corset made from a Birkin bag for the SS24 “In Loving Memory of my Sugar Daddy” collection. The Khy tie-up just took things to the next level.
Beneath the surface is a carefully executed, DTC-focused business strategy that is driving growth. Sales have been rising between 50 and 100 per cent year-on-year since 2019, reaching €2 million in 2023. After five seasons showing in New York, the brand joined the Berlin schedule for AW23, a year after the Fashion Council Germany took over from Mercedes-Benz and revived Berlin Fashion Week with a new creative energy. The US, its biggest market, makes up 50 per cent of sales, but demand in Europe — especially in Germany — is steadily growing.
Namilia showed its AW24 collection at Berlin art and culture site Kulturforum on Tuesday night, followed by an afterparty at nightclub Ohm where Lovefoxy and Kiddy Smile DJ’d. Called “Pfoten Weg!”, which roughly translates to “Back Off!”, the collection is a commentary on attacks on queer people, trans people and women on public transportation. Models stomped down the catwalk with cans of “pepper KO spray maximum strength” to techno mixed over audio clips of statistics on the rise of such attacks, as well as clips of hate speech.
“We’re a party brand, and so many times you think, how can I dress and express myself but still be safe and not be attacked or assaulted on the subway going back home?” says Li, who is creative director. There’s a playfulness behind the message too: the collection has camouflage juxtaposed with sparkly mesh, structured corsets and exaggerated shoulders — it’s a tongue-in-cheek way of contrasting the desired visibility and invisibility inherent in creative expression for marginalised people.
Namilia strikes a balance between the out-there showpieces (like the leather cross thong bodysuit from SS24, worn by Julia Fox) and those that go into production (among its bestsellers are thigh-high boots, leather chaps and moto jackets). Prices are relatively accessible, ranging from €40 for a thong to €160 for chaps and €280 for a faux fur coat.
About 70 per cent of the designs on the runway are eventually sold, the founders say. “It’s still important for us to have shows to get the big ideas. During the pandemic, when we weren’t doing shows, we felt our collections were getting a bit boring because in order to create cool sales pieces we need that [creative outlet],” says Pfohl, who handles the business side. “From the beginning, people were always telling us, ‘you need to be more commercial, where’s the slogan T-shirt?’ But we tried that and nobody wanted it,” says Li.
Since its inception, the brand has been connected with the music industry and pop culture, and rose to success due to requests for custom pieces for music videos and stage costumes. Artists such as Cardi B, JLo, Christina Aguilera and Megan Thee Stallion have worn the brand’s designs, in addition to celebrities like Fox, Paris Hilton and Hailey Bieber. To lean into its ties to the music scene, Namilia’s US PR agency is based in LA rather than New York. The plan for 2024 is to grow the in-house marketing team, too.
Collaborating with Khy
Li and Pfohl met during their BA studies at the Berlin University of Arts. “We already branded everything Namilia back then, it was the time of celebrity couples like Brangelina,” says Li. After graduating, Pfohl went on to complete a number of fashion PR internships, and helped Li, who studied MA fashion at London’s Royal College of Art. Li’s MA collection was picked up by PR Ella Dror and the pair moved back to Berlin.
In 2015, the brand’s first official collection “My Pussy, My Choice”, was picked up to show on talent incubator Vfiles’s runway in New York, and Namilia continued to show there for five more seasons. Commercial awareness followed, as did mentorship from New York PR guru Kelly Cutrone. Li designed Yeezy Season Three womenswear. West’s production manager eventually went to Skims (in which West has a minority stake), where Namilia ghost designed a few drops, and the same team approached Namilia about Khy.
Namilia designed the first of Khy’s drops, which landed internationally in November 2023 (almost half the items are currently sold out). Jenner’s brand has since launched two further drops, one in collaboration with Entire Studios and one drop of sweats and T-shirts created without a guest designer.
Namilia’s 12-piece drop for Khy featured faux leather pieces, including a trench coat; a strapless mini dress; and a cropped hooded jacket. The pieces were a slightly more minimal and premium adaptation of Namilia’s design codes. “Because everything was produced in higher quantities, we had the extra budget to do all the details we wanted, like etching and painting the edges of the materials as if it was real leather,” Li says.
While some questioned the partnership, Namilia’s founders are confident it was the right move. “[The collaboration] definitely gave us more legitimacy,” says Li. “Kylie Jenner is very divisive, people love her or hate her — some people thought we were selling out, and others thought it was a really cool next step — but [you can’t deny] it’s really big and legit. It got us more awareness.”
Namilia is forging its path for growth with more partnerships this year. “It really helped that after Khy, other brands realised we could be a potential partner, so for the next two shows we already have really big partners,” says Li.
The benefits of a DTC strategy
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce makes up 80 per cent of Namilia’s sales, and its 10 stockists are mainly smaller boutiques. DTC is where the money is, says Pfohl. “The wholesale market is so crazy — retailers take so much money, so it’s not really worth it,” she says. The brand has also had difficulties with late payments and order cancellations from retailers. “I feel like with the wholesale system, the designer comes last,” says Li.
During Covid, Li and Pfohl took the lull as an opportunity to build the infrastructure of the business. “We spent two years focusing on the business side, strategy, logistics, factories,” says Li. “[Having a DTC strategy] really saved us during the pandemic because we weren’t dependent on big retailers that could just drop you.” Namilia has two shipping facilities: one at the back of its Berlin studio and another that opened in the US last year.
There’s also demand from Chinese and Taiwanese stars in Asia, but the brand is waiting until it opens a warehouse in Asia in the next few years before diving into that consumer market. It does, however, produce in China, and has close relationships with its suppliers in the southern Suzhou garment district. “We’ve built really stable relationships with our factories and spent a lot of time with them [visiting them in person] to learn how we can benefit each other,” says Li. Li’s family is from Beijing and he speaks Chinese, which he says helps in building relationships. “We’ve worked with our manufacturers for so many years. We send each other Christmas presents,” adds Pfohl.
Factories in China are particularly equipped to produce high-tech garments. “Since our products are so stage and club inspired, we had to make the pieces very technically. The people who wear them will stay out for 48 hours,” says Li. “We incorporate high-performance elements, pattern techniques and finishings. The products are all very stretchy and we use triple-top stitches to make sure everything is really durable.”
Sustainability: A work in progress
The sustainability of leather and leather alternatives is a hotly debated topic. Namilia uses synthetic leather, which won the label a Vegan Fashion Collaboration Award from PETA in January this year. But the presence of petrochemicals in synthetic leather — derived from fossil fuels — has drawn criticism.
Li acknowledges these concerns, but like many small brands it is held back by cost. “We were talking to a company in Mexico [called Desserto], which makes plant-based leather from cacti and another that makes it from apple peels, but for now it’s so expensive for us and doesn’t make sense. To ship from Mexico, to China to be manufactured, and back [to] our warehouse in the US is definitely hard,” he says. “It’s difficult because we’re kind of in-between, where we’re not small enough to use only deadstock material, but we’re also not big enough to ask for 20,000 metres of these materials.”
Nicole Rawling, CEO of non-profit Material Innovation Initiative, acknowledges that next-gen materials are generally more expensive than synthetic or animal-based leather. “The industry is very young and new products tend to be more expensive while the companies use revenue to fund research and development and build scale. The prices are getting closer and the prices of next-gen leather will continue to get lower and lower,” she says, adding that some of these companies have only built production facilities in the last year. “The issue is that the environmental harms that come from the cheap synthetics and animal-based materials are externalities and not paid for as part of the product. By choosing cheap materials, brands are making the choice to fund those negative environmental impacts.”
Sustainability is a work in progress for Namilia, Li says. An upcoming collaboration, launching this summer, will feature upcycled and recycled materials and showpieces always include upcycled elements. In addition, the brand’s PU is water-based rather than oil-based.
For now, its primary focus is on maintaining an accessible price point while prioritising good wages for factory workers and its team of 20, as well as staying true to its provocative DNA and remaining financially viable for the long term. “There are so many designers who are so passionate,” says Li. “For us, it’s about maintaining our creative freedom, but also making money and having a functioning business.”