Meet Nude Project, Your Favorite Spanish Streetwear Brand
We took a trip to Barcelona to see the brand’s newest flagship and find out all there is to know about its origin story.
If you’re not already familiar with Nude Project, you’re about to be. Launched by Bruno Casanovas and Alex Benlloch back in 2019, the brand currently has 11 stores across the globe, three killer collaborations with Playboy under its belt and a fast-growing community of fashion fans everywhere.
As the brand geared up to open its Barcelona flagship, we took a trip to the sunny city to visit the Nude office and find out more about the brand’s success story and new museum-inspired store.
Read on for the full interview and head to the Nude Project website to shop its latest collections.
Tell me a bit about the brand and what made you decide to start it. Where did it come from?
The brand is called Nude Project, but we actually sell clothes, which is quite ironic. We started when we were 18. I met this kid, who is my best friend now—he was just a kid I met on social media. He was like, “Yo, do you have something to do?” and I was like, “No, I’m actually quite bored and have nothing to do with my life. Should we start a brand? F-ck it, yeah, let’s do it.” We started seven years ago, and the rest is history. Now we have this amazing store, and we’re actually able to finance the crazy ideas we have, which is probably the biggest success.
Can you tell me a bit more about the story behind the name?
I’d love to have a cool story like, “We started Nude Project because Alex and I were both nudists and we would always go nude to the beach, and this was kind of the reason we started a clothing brand.” That would be cool, but it’s not the real story. The real story is that we had a different name, but we couldn’t register it legally because we were kids and naive and didn’t know we had to do that. The name started with NP, so we were like, “Oh my god, what do we do now? We have to find a new brand.” We started looking at every dictionary in every language in the world, and we came out with Nude Project. We were like, “What the f-ck, this is weird. I kind of like that.”
Obviously, the brand started with more unisex or menswear, and then you developed a fully-fledged womenswear collection. Why?
Because I’m extremely proud of our women’s collection. I always thought, “if I have a girlfriend, I also want to dress her [in the brand].” We have the cutest bikinis in the world and honestly, it’s just so cool designing for someone who is not me. It feels much more interesting as a project. I love women, and I love the female figure. Being able to dress a woman, to make her feel empowered and feel good about herself, I think, is the coolest thing.
What are the biggest differences in designing for womenswear versus menswear? What are the things that you’re thinking about?
I think we, as men, and I can talk for the collective, are just basic—we’re extremely simple. You see some denim pants, a white t-shirt and you’re like, “Oh, cool.” Women are extremely more complex when it comes to dressing up, and they’re more elegant and sophisticated. I think there’s a different level of requirement…I feel women require so much more when it comes to fashion and demand a lot more from designers, so I think that was the biggest challenge.
Over the years, you’ve done some amazing collaborations. Playboy is obviously the one that comes to mind. How did that come about?
The collaboration was born from a complete admiration for the brand Playboy in the ’70s. People will have many opinions about Playboy, and I understand, but we wanted to reinterpret the identity and aesthetic of Playboy in today’s day and age with our values. I think that was kind of the magic of the collaboration; it felt very special.
How do you decide who to collaborate with, and what, in your opinion, makes a good collaboration?
Collaborations really depend a lot on humans. If I meet a wavy human who runs a very cool brand, I care almost more about the human sometimes than the brand. If someone connects with you and if someone is motivated, you know that magic is about to happen. Sometimes there are cool brands run by huge corporations that limit you and don’t let you do what you would want to do or what you would think would be magical, which is limiting.
What makes a good collaboration? Freedom. People who are really excited to make that happen and to bring something new to the world. And of course, two brands that you can’t expect coming together—the unexpected is cool in collaborations. I don’t want to see something that would make sense in my head. I want to see something that f-cks up my brain.
There’s been a lot of conversation online recently about the idea that streetwear is dead. How do you feel about that?
I think “streetwear” is just a name people decided to give to prêt-à-porter in everyday fashion. Everyday fashion is not going to be dead because we have to dress ourselves to go to work, to go to school. But I think that title resembles a huge changing of times—Supreme, Palace, brands that I’ve loved throughout my youth, maybe they’re not at a peak in their cycle right now. I still think their value proposition is amazing, but it’s time for new brands, time for fresh ideas. So call it prêt-à-porter, call it streetwear, call it everyday wear—people are still going to need those types of clothes. I hope streetwear’s not dead because if not, I’m not going to be able to finance this store…
Outside of the store openings, what are some of your other goals for the brand? What do you still want to do?
If people just let me keep creating and having a budget to do amazing things like this store, I’m kind of content. Maybe I’ve lost my ambition. Maybe I’m getting older? Because I think I’m just happy doing this and getting to wake up every morning and working with amazing, talented people that I respect and admire, and creating amazing products and campaigns that really bring some type of value and excitement to the world.
