Designer Series: Where FOLDS began

There was a point before FOLDS, when I started questioning the world I was designing for.

I had spent years in fashion. I understood construction, fabric and fit. I had dressed women at a high level, and I knew what it meant to create something considered.

But I was also seeing the other side of it. The waste. The overproduction. The pace at which things were being made, and discarded, without much thought. Consumerism.

I didn’t want to stop designing. I just wanted to do it differently.

I started moving toward sustainability. Better materials. More intention behind what was being made.

And then the pandemic hit.

Everything stopped. And at the same time, everything became very clear.

I began making medical-grade masks through a government bid. It was practical at first, just responding to what was needed. But something shifted for me during that time.

For the first time, I was creating for people who were actually doing something important.

Not dressing for an occasion. Not creating for a moment. But contributing, in a small way, to people showing up every day in environments that demanded focus, discipline and resilience.

And I felt like I could do more.

So I started looking for a better fabric.

I began reviewing different textile technologies. Antimicrobial, antibacterial, even antiviral technologies.
Testing materials. Working through samples. Understanding how they actually performed, not just how they were marketed.

My engineering background became useful in a way I hadn’t expected.
Not just in the fabric, but in how everything would eventually come together.

I worked through a lot of options before finding the right direction.

Not something that looked good. Something that performed. Something that could meet the demands of that environment, but still feel refined and intentional and sustainable at the same time. Good for the wearer and good for the planet.

I found a lab working with a material that was completely different from anything I had used in fashion.

Technical. Actually engineered. 

It was also significantly more expensive than anything typically used in this category.

But for the first time, the material made sense.

Not for fashion. For healthcare.

That decision set the direction for everything that followed.

I didn’t set out to make “luxury scrubs.” That wasn’t the goal.

I set out to make something properly.

To take what I knew from fashion and apply it where it actually mattered.

To use better fabric, even if it cost more.
To work with the right people, even if it wasn’t scalable.
To focus on fit and construction in a way that this category hadn’t seen.

In many cases, our fabric costs 5 times of what is typically used, and our production cost is 15 times more, which reflects a completely different standard.

This is not mass-produced overseas.

This is a product built by top specialists, across fabric, fit, and construction.
Not optimized for scale, but for quality.

Because I believe the people wearing it deserve that option.

FOLDS came from that moment.
From choosing a different standard, and building around it.

And once you understand what goes into it, the difference is immediate.

With all my gratitude,
Nina