Founder Laura May spills the beans on Nagnata’s US pop-up debut at NYFW

Nagnata, an Australian luxury and lifestyle brand, has opened its first-ever pop-up store in the United States. Coinciding with New York Fashion Week, the pop-up store, located at Sommwhere on 48 Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side, is set to run from September 3 to September 15. Offering US customers and buyers the chance to experience Nagnata’s brand ethos and discover their collections in person, the new pop-up is designed to offer an immersive shopping experience.

Founded by sisters Laura May and Hannah Gibbs in 2015, Nagnata blends fashion and sustainability through its contemporary knitwear offering. Merging fashion design with fair trade practices, community initiatives, and a focus on conscious living, the brand draws inspiration from Eastern and Western cultures. Driven by a focus on mindfulness, considered design creation, and the interrelationship between art and activism, Nagnata’s offering is created with movement in mind. To learn more about the brand’s pop-up debut in the US, its presence in the country, and plans for the future, we spoke with founder Laura May.

1. Why did you choose New York City as the location for Nagnata’s first-ever US pop-up store?

Laura May: “We’ve been focused on building brand awareness in the US since the early days of Nagnata. I spent a lot of time in LA and NYC, so I was naturally attuned to those markets. In the last year, we’ve taken steps to better service our US customers by opening an LA-based 3PL warehouse so our US customers can receive quicker deliveries and do not incur customs and duties. We’ve also hosted a number of wellness activations over the years in LA and have shown Nagnata collections during market at New York Fashion Week.

The US is our second largest market after Australia, so we really wanted to bring Nagnata to our community here so they can experience and shop the products in person in an intimate and thoughtfully curated space. Pop-ups are a great way to connect with the community in person, and in our opinion, there’s no more vibrant place to be than in NYC during fashion week. As our customer is not an industry-only customer with busy fashion week schedules, we have carefully chosen our pop-up location in the Lower East Side, neighboring with other emerging brands, artists, and creatives amongst an alive cafe and bar culture.”

2. How does launching the pop-up during New York Fashion Week align with your brand's identity?

Laura May: “We attend New York City fashion markets twice a year as a brand during NYFW to present our collections to US and international buyers. I love the energy of the city around fashion week, there is always so much happening, and while you’re competing with other big events, shows and activations, the industry’s attention is focused on fashion and what’s happening in New York City (NYC). It’s a great time to meet editors and media and connect with brand ambassadors.

We are opening our space for two weeks, so that allows time for people to come down when it suits them within busy schedules. Nagnata is a fashion and lifestyle luxury brand with our RTW category growing momentum every year, so it's important to be at the pulse of fashion in New York, where we are able to meet our existing customers and grow awareness effectively. Authentic and intimate community-led events are at the core of our brand as we strongly believe that establishing in-person connections forms a deeper relationship between brand and customer.”

3. What can visitors expect from Nagnata’s NYC pop-up experience?

Laura May: “We are open each day from 11 am, and in the mornings, we are hosting media appointments and sales showings, so buyers can experience our world in a more immersive way outside of the multi-brand showrooms we generally show with in NYC & Paris. We will be celebrating our NYC pop-up store in an intimate opening event with industry, brand ambassadors, and friends of Nagnata attending - connection, music, and showings of fashion films will see attendees immersing in our world."

4. How do you see this pop-up influencing Nagnata's presence in the US market? Are there plans for other, more permanent stand-alone stores or future expansions here?

Laura May: “Retail expansion is a strategic focus of the brand as we encounter great success personally connecting to our audience, providing them with a luxury shopping experience in an approachable setting. For our Australian market, we are launching a new flagship store at the key destination of Sydney Glenmore Road this November.

We also have our eyes firmly set on opening a permanent store in the United States in the coming years.”

5. How does Nagnata's philosophy of "Movements Not Seasons" influence the way you approach collection releases and connect with your audience, especially in the US?

Laura May: “The founding mantra “Movements Not Seasons” is our gesture towards a free approach to seasonality. This was really relevant for when we launched our first few ‘Movements,’ which is how we refer to our collections instead of by seasons. This was because we didn’t want to be pressured into producing collections every ‘season’ unless we felt we needed and could sell through the stock. It took some negotiating with buyers early on, but the right wholesale partners came on board, and as in Australia, we don’t do seasonal sales; our stock always remains relevant at full price.

“As time has gone on and we now have stores and increased sales across all channels, we are able to produce three collections per year consistently. But those founding ideals still remain, such as not producing more than we need. We are very tuned into our customer and offer a lot of carryovers and slight evolutions in each Movement while also experimenting with new categories, such as more ready-to-wear styles and our new Swim Surf Sport line.

6. Your creative team is spread across cities like Byron Bay, Sydney, New York, and Los Angeles. How does this global perspective shape Nagnata’s identity and engagement with local and international communities?

Laura May: “Since founding Nagnata, I have always traveled a lot, and establishing globally relevant collections has always been a strong consideration. We have brand advisors in Sydney, LA, and New York, while our headquarters and flagship store are located in Byron Bay, a beautiful Australian beach town that I personally love for its lifestyle.

Designing trans-seasonal collections is something we have always done, again not adhering to that idea of ‘seasons’, we have looks to wear in the city and then those more suited to the beach, but then there’s the understanding of the uniform our Nagnata person will wear studio-to-street all around the world. Our detailed attention to quality fabrications, classic styles, and functional movement pieces create our signature Nagnata aesthetic that allows us to speak to a global audience.”

7. What’s next for Nagnata after your NYFW pop-up? Are there any exciting future projects or collaborations you’re particularly excited about that you can share with us?

Laura-May: “In October, we will host our second Nagnata Wellness Retreat at SOMA in Byron Bay, which has been an evolution of the brand where we can connect more deeply with our community. We are also opening our next retail store in Sydney in November. We are working on a new line, too, which I cannot tell you too much about yet, but we will launch mid-2025 during a fashion week.”