Luca Nichetto’s first clothing line aims to “bridge the gap between fashion and design.”

The Italian designer Luca Nichetto has ventured into fashion creating a timeless collection not bound to season or gender. Designed for the new French lifestyle brand La Manufacture, where Nichetto is Creative Director, the collection consists of 23 different pieces with a variety of graphic prints and bold colour combinations. “It’s been great to approach fashion coming from a different industry,” Nichetto says from his studio in the Stockholm suburbs. “I think it makes you look at it from another perspective.” Flirting with streetwear, the idea is to update existing models with new colour combinations and materials each season.

Italian designer Luca Nichetto posing in his Stockholm studio. Besides venturing into fashion, La Manufacture will launch a new furniture collection in drops throughout the year rather than presenting everything at once. “The industry need to re think its offer,” says Nichetto.

The first fashion collection for La Manufacture features 23 pieces, featuring bold colours and cuts. “It’s been great to approach fashion coming from a different industry,” Nichetto. 

The lifestyle brand La manufacture launched in January last year with an ambitious collection from designers such as Sebastian Herkner, Nendo and Ben Gorham of Byredo. With a large shop in the Opéra district of Paris, one aim is to show that design still can survive on the high street. “It was perhaps not the best year to launch a new venture, but the happenings last year did give us some extra time to develop the concepts,” Nichetto says.

The new furniture collection, with designs by the likes of Front and Michael Young, will launch in drops throughout the year. “With no trade shows at hand, furniture producers need to re think their offer and how they present their new products. They need to think outside the box to create new formats,” Nichetto comments. “My hope is that trade shows will transform themselves and become more of a cultural hub in the future. The starting point has to be cultural rather than commercial, to give it value and make it attractive.”

This past year has proved an eye opener for many, Nichetto reckons, not least when it comes to re evaluating collaborations and projects. “It has made us all more selective; time is the new luxury and you want to invest your time where you think there’s sense.," he says. "Lately I’ve gone back to the feeling I had when I first started out as a designer, when every project had a strong purpose beyond just selling. I have felt a great excitement to experiment, try new materials and explore different typologies and industries again.”

The Nichetto studio, with bases in both Venice and Stockholm, has been very busy developing new strategies and collaborations during the past year.

“The industry needs to switch their mindset and thinking, and look at the future with different eyes, not comparing it to what has been,” he says. “We need new ideas and new formats and we need to invest in culture. I also think it’s more important than ever that a company has its own identity and voice. I’m so tired of homogeneity.”