Philadelphia Designer: NINOBrand with Bela Shehu

It was an absolutely delightful meeting with local fashionista and ubër talented designer, Bela Shehu of NINOBrand. The Rittenhouse Square atelier is exactly like her monocromatic women's collection. The space is concrete-urban cool, not subjugated to a specific age group, yet, her clientele are in their 40-60's. NINOBrand is geared towards the woman who understands fashion in the long-term sense. She is not a trend-monger, but truly appreciates well-constructed, yet out-of-the-norm garments in cool fabrics. The designer was rockin' a black linen maxi-skirt with exposed red zipper and a sleeveless tee from League. Bela hales from Albania, but has called the states her home for quite sometime now, moving from Iowa to South Philly in the late 90's. She has been doing brand and image consulting with local companies such as Duke & Winston, Commonwealth Proper, Lithewear and League; eventually, launching her own line in 2002. When asked where she draws her inspiration, Miss Shehu expresses it's about emotion, a state of mind and the ability to communicate mood. During the development stage, Bela aims to design for designers. Creating a pair of pants that Haider Ackermann would don, regarding its shape, construction and simplicity of a complicated pattern.

I am obviously a collage freak....so when the homepage loaded to the brand's website, I had to ask who designed it. Bela employes a local artists the ateleier in Rittenhouse Square. The talented designer at the moment is Mia, who is finishing-up the bad-ass window design as we speak. It's apparent Bela is a sucker for amazing fashion illustrators, photographers and artists. Some of those include Klindicative, DylanLex, Marcus Branch, Artist Isaac T Linn & blogger Mai Style Pages. The designer's favorite piece is the black NEEL drop crotch pant. Personally, I never thought a drop crotch had the ability to be "elegant" and if you need some styling help, be sure to follow NinoBrand on Instagram. As for the future, she would love to connect with local designers for collaborations and to expand into jewelry. NINOBrand is currently sold online, at their retail store and will open private collection in the newly relocated Joan Shepp store on 1818 Chestnut Street.
The NINObrand Atelier 333 S. 20th Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 phone: 267-761-9388 Facebook Instagram email: [email protected]