Vanissa Antonious has always treated design like architecture for the body. Since she started NEOUS in London in 2017, the label has been about sculptural shapes, clean lines, and a kind of quiet luxury that doesn’t beg for attention. All of it is handmade in Italy, of course.
This fall, she’s digging through the nineties and early 2000s, pulling out the shoes and bags that defined the era and twisting them into something new. Think kitten heels and peep toes, but seen through the lens of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Alessandra Spranzi’s photographs of the ordinary made uncanny, and Ellen von Unwerth’s glamorous, unruly portraits.
The lineup has personality: the ZIRR mule with its delicate lacing, the DANUS sandal cut from leather so thin it looks like hosiery, and the CULUMBA, folded from a single sheet of leather. Bags get their moment too, with the BERENICES BAGUETTE tipping its hat to the decade that made the baguette iconic.
When it comes to materials, they play a big role, think of abrasivato burgundy, red nappa, cream crepe de chine, and laser-cut leather. Shapes span from pared-back ballerina flats to sharp pumps and vintage-flavored handbags.
The brand calls the collection a meditation on beauty, borrowing from Spranzi’s way of turning everyday clutter — glasses, spoons, a napkin left crumpled — into something strangely captivating. Beauty, Antonious seems to suggest, isn’t a fixed point. This season, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
