Nensi Dojaka never planned to skip two seasons at London Fashion Week, and she is loath to engage in the comeback narrative the industry likes to spin around creatives who dare to step away from the rat race. “Everyone is like, ‘Oh, she’s returning,’ but I don’t know what they expect,” says the Albanian-born favourite, who is famous for bringing sexy back to the British capital. “It’s a return to say that the brand is healthy and going forward.”
Indeed, Dojaka’s lingerie-meets-tailoring proposition, founded in 2019 when she was fresh out of Central Saint Martins and en route to Fashion East, is being propelled into spring/summer 2025 at lightning speed thanks to the backing of Calvin Klein, who tapped Nensi some 18 months ago to create a see-now-buy-now underwear collection. Despite having been approached numerous times by brands in her label’s short lifespan, this call – not just an invitation, but a lifeline for a young designer – is the only one she answered with a resounding “yes”.
It made complete sense, says this lingerie obsessive, who pored over ’90s Calvin Klein images during her studies and has consistently tacked pieces to her reference boards over the last six years. “It’s not even just about the design, it’s the overall aesthetic and the feeling,” she recalls of what drew her into the world of a baby-faced Kate Moss and a breathy Brooke Shields asking the immortal question, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?” Klein’s reductionist lens turned out to be helpful for a creative who could easily get tied up in knots with her signature spliced-and-diced aesthetic: “They took some of my ideas that are a bit complicated and intricate and they became more minimal, which brought a new, fresh beauty to the way I do things.”
Dojaka, who had never been to New York before being installed in a SoHo hotel and then whisked to the vast CK archive, says she felt entirely “taken care of” as the team introduced her to the storied brand’s micro technology for maximum support, and the detailed process of grading up pieces – a huge pull on resources, time and expertise that Dojaka’s team of six simply does not have capacity for when dreaming up their own whispers of bralettes. With some 44 pieces of lingerie, knitwear and tailoring designed for all women in the Calvin Klein X Nensi Dojaka capsule, the learning curve was huge for this partywear aficionado, who is treating the collab as a reset moment for her company.
Even shooting the campaign, which stars Jill Kortleve, Mona Tougaard and Rebecca Ferguson, all captured by Harley Weir on a summer’s day in Greenwich, was mind-blowing for the LVMH prize winner, who has never had the means to conceive a serious editorial before. “It was a beautiful 12 hours,” reflects Dojaka, who kept coming back to the words “inclusive”, “empowering, “femininity” and “sensuality”. When we talk, she has “no secrets” regarding the casting of the spring/summer 2025 show, quite simply because things are running typically last minute, but the everywoman ethos – “this idea of putting it on women of different backgrounds and different shapes” – has been central to all the decision making.
Moreover, the “wine tasting” palette – think: earthy burgundies, caramel-beige cognacs and hints of soft pink – filter the sensual work of Dojaka, who basically grew up dressing Dua Lipa and Rita Ora, through a more mature lens. On the runway, there will be five or so full Calvin Klein X Nensi Dojaka looks, and then flashes of the bras visible in her mainline edit. “It’s definitely very Nensi – you won’t be super surprised that the house codes are still there, but there’s an evolution,” she shares of funnelling her spontaneous design codes through a more structured lens in line with the vision of her partner. “[While away], we created brand pillars – designs have to be feminine or architectural or, in some cases, a contrast and tension between the two, because I think this is what the brand is about.”
Despite not venturing into denim with Calvin Klein – “they do denim very well, they don’t need any input” – it is the category Dojaka has most enjoyed losing herself in recently. That and shoes. “[This project] has opened my eyes to a lot of things and possibilities,” she muses. “When I first started, I made a lot of small brand decisions, now I’m trying to change a lot of those things.” On 14 September, as Dojaka closes out the Saturday of London Fashion Week, Nensi’s ecommerce platform will go live selling her new hyped-up smalls in line with Calvin Klein’s mid-level price point (£45 to £300) and – crucially – its size range. “It’s kind of terrifying me a bit,” she admits of going solo on the wholesale front. “I hope it all lives up to expectations.” After taking time to take stock and forge her own path, it’s fair to say that the only thing that comes between Nensi and her Calvins is hard work.