MILAN — “This is already the dream,” said Nathalie Danten, flashing a big smile when asked what’s the ultimate ambition she has for her indie brand Plās Collective.
“I just wish to keep doing this with a strong collective, work with creatives with incredible personality, do innovative projects together and improve the quality each time. But the structure is this one, I can’t picture it as something too big,” said the Uruguayan designer, who launched the label in 2021.
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With her infectious, bubbly personality, Danten represents a new generation of off-the-radar designers that seems more committed to preserving their small brands’ integrity rather than scaling the fashion ladder or longing to establish juggernaut companies.
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The work Danten is doing with her Milan-based label consists of quietly putting together different creative voices along with experimenting with fabrics for the simple pleasure of discovery and offering a different perspective via limited-edition garments and design collectibles. Mainly focused on womenswear, once Danten establishes a collection theme she collaborates with small local manufacturers and international creatives to develop ready-to-wear and accessories crafted from repurposed materials — such as deadstock fabrics and recycled yarns — as well as corollary objects and the presentation concept.
Such an approach sparked while Danten was prepping her final project at Parsons School of Design. “They asked us for four outcomes; my collection was just one of them so I wondered what to do for the other three,” she said, recalling how she teamed with textile researchers to develop fabrics from scratch, involved friends at New York University to direct a fashion movie and worked with a friend to stage a theatrical performance in Harlem, N.Y.
“That’s how I realized that I enjoyed more collaborating with people with different backgrounds and not just in fashion, otherwise you end up staying within the same references all the time,” Danten said.
After stints on design teams for brands in Copenhagen and London, she relocated to Milan, where she got a master’s degree in fashion business at Bocconi University with a thesis launching Plās Collective.
“The concept of community is overused and sometimes what happens in communities is that everything gets diluted. I prefer the idea of collective, meaning the sum of each person’s individuality and point of strength,” Danten said about picking the name of her brainchild.
It reflects her attitude when recruiting collaborators, who hail from different industries and include the likes of Chilean welder and artist Alberto Vitelio, who comes from several generations of blacksmiths; Colombian designer Natalia Criado, who’s specialized in sculptural and playful metal tableware; Italian glass artist Simone Crestiani; the Fosbury Architecture architectural research and design collective, and the Anonima Luci lighting design and light art studio launched by Alberto Saggia and Stefania Kalogeropoulos, among others.
This Milan Fashion Week, Plās Collective will stage a presentation at Tube Gallery on Tuesday that will flank the Milk and Cookies exhibition showcasing works by emerging international artists.
As for Danten’s own work, her brand’s concise “Spring Decadence” fall 2025 collection will center on modular silhouettes using yarns and fabric sourced in Italy, including cashmere and silk tulle.
Knitted pieces to be worn individually or layered and morphing in their design via upcycling or the use of rare buttons supplied by local specialist Bottonificio Bonfanti will take center stage in the lineup. Ditto for simple shapes crafted from a mushroom-inoculated cotton jersey developed in collaboration with Paris-based experimental Studio Alèa. First introduced as part of the set design of the brand’s previous presentation, the innovative fabric was turned into wearable form for fall 2025, often layered with delicate silk tulle for an ethereal effect.
Danten recalled how the “Mycelia” spring 2025 collection presented last September started from her fascination with mushrooms, which organically evolved into an open call for artists from different disciplines to further explore and add their perspective to the theme. That’s how she got in touch with Studio Alèa’s founders Miriam Josi and Stella Lee Prowse and their work experimenting with mushrooms in design pieces such as chairs.
Joining forces, the parties embarked on textile manipulations creating patterns and exploring mycelium’s potential for dye removal, for example. They also first inoculated mushrooms in a silk scarf, and applied the same approach to the set-up. At the time, the immersive scenography fusing design, art and biology showcased not only an installation where fungi dégradéd dyes on mycelium-infused textiles but also a choreography overseen by performance director Gian Marco Porru, another member of the Plās ensemble.
True to its “ecologically aware approach,” as Danten defined her brand’s ethos, the label reprised some of the materials of the previous collection and gave them a new life and shape in the fall 2025 lineup, which will be rounded off by accessories such as ruched headpieces, fingerless gloves and thin boa scarves.
The fashion assortment mainly hinges on knitwear, ranging from soft and stretchy knitted corsets to crewneck sweaters featuring recycled nylon yarns for an edgier effect. Ribbed options that can be rolled up and down to customize proportions and fits are also among the most popular pieces.
With an average price tag between 150 euros and 500 euros, the brand sells in small batches at the likes of Demain Retro in Paris and Cafè Forgot in New York, where it will stage a pop-up at the end of March. The label will additionally enter Domicile in Tokyo, which will add to retailers such as Marsell68 and Aurelia in Mexico City, representing Plās Collective’s strongest market at the moment.