Oh! Nena: Venezuela’s Handcrafted Headwear Movement

Venezuelan girls on the streets of culturally independent Maracaibo are getting used to crowning themselves with hand-made headwear by up-and-coming designers Oh! Nena. The look is Blair Waldorf as a Euro-Latin punk rocker.

Oh! Nena keeps things fresh by maintaining an open collaboration policy with a network of the city’s up-and-coming artists, photographers and fashion models ever since the brand’s inception.

PSFK sat down with Oh! Nena’s three founders – Daniela Ordoñez, Andrea Moreno and Valentina Alvarado – to learn more:

In your latest collection, every piece has a name. Where do these names come from?

We took that idea from a Venezuelan group called “Boom Boom Clan”. All of their songs were related to women’s names. We thought it fit perfectly with the brand because it’s an ode to women.

What inspires your collections?

Wink, our latest collection, is about a confident girl who loves the night and wears cheeky things. She’s flirty and seductive. She dances to Discovery and sings Karen O. The one before, called “The Body Breaks”, is a lot more ethereal, organic and primitive. It’s inspired by romance, folk music and botany.

You guys have received a lot of love from the Venezuelan fashion media lately. What do you think explains the excitement?

We are a young brand that’s part of a rising movement with other young designers from our city. We try to add a bit more personality to the city. Offer something new and fresh. The media likes that a lot and they’ve been supporting us since the beginning.

You started out right before the global financial crisis hit. Did that affect the initial reception?

The crisis was already happening in our country when we started, but we’ve had very good reception. There’s always space for coquetry even in times of crisis.

Any plans to expand North?

Of course. North America is an untapped field for us that we are anxious to foray into. We’d love to be able to sell our accessories and be featured in the magazines being that there are a thousand things that go with our style.

Oh! Nena