“I knew I had to do this here…”

In the middle of summer we spent an afternoon at Nanushka’s showroom, which is located in a picturesque setting just under the Buda Castle. The sun shone in through the window, and we talked with Szandra Sándor, founder/designer of the Hungarian brand, about her childhood, London, and her work…

mashKULTURE: Tell us a little about your childhood, and when you started becoming interested in fashion.

Szandra Sándor: I was born in Budapest in 1982, and as kid my mom used to sell baby’s and children’s clothes. She wasn’t a designer, she just bought and sold them, but I’m sure it directly influenced me to become a designer. I mean, growing up around so much clothes, and always trying on new stuff definitely had an impact.

mashKULTURE: And then, much later, when you were eighteen, you moved to the UK to attend the London College of Fashion. How did it feel to arrive in London at such a young age all alone?

Szandra Sándor: Well, it wasn’t the first time I had gone abroad for a longer period of time. Even at a young age, my parents thought I should learn English, so when I was nine I visited the family of my mom’s ex-husband in Portugal since there was an English language school close by.

mashKULTURE: How old were you???

Szandra Sándor: Nine (laughs).

mashKULTURE: That’s pretty wild…and without your parents?

Szandra Sándor: Yeah, but I visited the family of my mom’s ex-husband and we get along really well. Obviously, the start was pretty tough, but to this day my mom is certain that I was the one who wanted to move there (laughs).

mashKULTURE: Well at least you learned English…

Szandra Sándor: Yeah, that’s where I got my start. When I came back to Hungary, an English school had opened here as well, so I attended all the way up until grade seven, when I transferred to a “normal” school, and after that I attended a trade school specializing in economics.

mashKULTURE: Why economy?

Szandra Sándor: My dad would’ve like me to become an economist. Even later, when I was eighteen, he wanted me to attend IBS (International Business School), but I had absolutely no interest in going there.

mashKULTURE: So how did you find the London College of Fashion?

Szandra Sándor: Easily, on the internet. But it seemed like a pretty brave idea at the time. I had no experience in fashion, I could barely even draw back then. But regardless, I applied, because I knew I had always wanted to work with clothes. So I applied, then went to visit for an interview where I had to tell them what I planned to do if I got accepted, etc… Much to my surprise, I got accepted, and we started off with a prepatory year, which was really interesting, because we were familiarized with several aspects of the fashion industry, if only at a basic level. We then were able to choose in what direction we’d continue our studies. The year was a success, so I decided to go into fashion design.

mashKULTURE: How was London?

Szandra Sándor: London gave me a lot. I’ve always loved the city, and the opportunity to live and study there at such a young age had a huge affect on me. What was even better was that I wasn’t alone. I had moved to London with my boyfriend, who is a graphic designer, who also visited London to attend school. We left at the same time, came back at the same time, and rented several apartments over the four years too. First in South London, then Stoke Newington, which is in North-East London. I really enjoyed my time there, and I had a great time at school too.

There were twenty-four of us taking fashion design, and we all got a long great. To this day I still keep in touch with a lot of them. We really did learn a lot of useful things. They placed a lot of emphasis on theory, through such courses as Cultural Studies, but the hands-on, technical aspect wasn’t as thorough. If I would’ve attended school in Hungary, I’m sure my designs would be completely different. I found my own style in the last years spent in London.

mashKULTURE: Don’t you miss London?

Szandra Sándor: I don’t know. I always knew that I didn’t want to stay there, but in order to work and to become inspired, I need to travel. I visited London a year ago, but I will be going again soon.

mashKULTURE: And did you ever think to stay abroad and try your luck there?

Szandra Sándor: No. When I went to London, I knew that I didn’t want to stay there. For some reason I was sure and I still am, that I have to do this here in Hungary, so when I came home in 2004, I started Nanushka right away, which wasn’t really what everyone did after graduating. Most people decided to go to some big fashion house and learn the ropes there. I knew that I didn’t want to do that since I had such a clear idea of what kind of style I wanted to create, and I felt that if I didn’t let it come out then that I would lose it forever.

mashKULTURE: So you came home…

Szandra Sándor: I came home and got to work. There was this place (shows us her showroom) that my mom used to store her baby clothes. It was a perfect spot, so it became the showroom. After that, I knew I needed a couple sewing machines, so we bought one, then another one. Szilvi was the first one to come aboard (she looks at the girl at the back by the sewing machine and they giggle) two years ago, and that’s when we started it all. I had a couple pieces I had done at school that I wanted to make, and we started putting together a sample collection, which ended up being a total of 40 outfits.

mashKULTURE: How many people are involved with Nanushka?

Szandra Sándor: At present, four of us. There’s a seamstress, a modell, a friend of mine who helps with the administrative aspect, and me. Besides that, there are three people we contract. So many things are going on at one time that we really need someone who could hold together the financial aspect, since at times it seems like we’re falling apart (laughs). This job entails a lot of organization. We have to make sure we have enough stock, we have to make enough product to fulfill our orders.

All our items have to be received by the 30th of each month by the stores in Tokyo, America, Madrid, etc… After the clothes is produced, we have to inspect them, package them, and then ship them. At the same time we have to continuously get the new collection ready, which needs to be photographed, drawn-out, we need to make the linesheets, lookbooks, catalogue, etc… all on a deadline. So we’re always busy. We would need a couple more people to do this at a more comfortable pace. I’m always in contact with with the stores in Budapest that carry Nanushka, and someone has to run the showroom as well. But luckily, so far so good.

mashKULTURE: And as you mentioned, you can get Nanushka in Tokyo, London, Helsinki, Madrid, LA, New York and a bunch of other great cities around the world. How?

Szandra Sándor: I got a lot of help from a Hungarian girl living in the States who I met at the very beginning. She’s now my distributor in the US. She really liked what I was doing and took me to fashion shows, fashion weeks, and got a bunch of orders placed for me. So really, right now it’s the American market that keeps us afloat. For some reason, people really like it there, and I even read in a magazine that Lucy Liu was spotted wearing Nanushka (laughs). Now a guy from Australia contacted me about distributing Nanushka down under.

The whole thing started back in London. I took my lookbook and went to a bunch of designer shops to show them my first collection, which was kind of weird, since as a rookie, no one takes you seriously. They tell you: “Your stuff’s great, but can you produce enough? What if we need a larger order?”, etc… So one time I was in a shop with my lookbook and they told me to talk to the buyer, since he deals with these things. So I showed him my stuff. He even ordered a few, but the outcome wasn’t really all that successful. Now, a few years later, he wrote me an email telling me that he’s actually Australian, and that he had just moved back home and is interested in distributing Nanushka. So that’s how our stuff is now available in Australia too.

mashKULTURE: Do you think that there’s a certain caché to the fact that your stuff is “Hungarian”? Do you think that this means anything?

Szandra Sándor: I think so (laughs), because Eastern Europe is trendy now. Maybe not in America, but in Western Europe definitely.

mashKULTURE: What kind of feedback do you get from the fashion industry here in Hungary? (Besides winning the “Young Designer of the Year” Award)

Szandra Sándor: I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from young designers. I’m even good friends with a couple of them, like USE and Je Suis Belle. I even got an email from Julia Patkos, who is a Hungarian costume designer living in the UK who has worked in such films as Vanity Fair and Taxidermia.

mashKULTURE: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Szandra Sándor: Thanks for the interview!

mashKULTURE: Thank you!