Nervi is a young and fresh brand, in age and spirit. In fact, it launched its first collection in 2019, just before Covid, and grew despite of these times of turmoil. Nervi's DNA consists of bright colors and draping, feathers and sequins. It is a brand with a retro touch but it has a modern character at the same time.

Valentina Nervi, its founder, prefers viscose as it allows her to work with volumes that are constructed but to transmit softness, allowing the garment to maintain a light and sinuous appearance, thanks to the bias cuts and draping, a constant in her collections and a characteristic of the brand.

Each Nervi garment is born from a particular attention to construction as Valentina has worked in the past as a designer for intimates and she, therefore, pays particular attention to the internal structure of the garments, to enhance and determine the silhouette. For this reason, corsets, bodysuits and straps are built into her dresses, invisible but determining the final result of the garment.

Valentina revisits the 60s and 80s, bringing them into our times. With lightness and charm, she adds an unmistakable touch of rock'n roll, using the shapes and fabrics that characterizes the aesthetics of the period, thus immersing her collections in a bold and timeless style.

A brand with a Couture identity, as it features various tailoring details and has a handmade nature. Sustainability has strong importance for Nervi, in fact the brand supports small artisan companies: the production that follows the sample collection is in fact a small Italian company in Modena.

Fine, sophisticated fabrics, sartorial constructions and an exclusively Made in Italy production headed by a designer who loves 'custom made' which is a part of her expertise. Valentina is a great fan of tailoring: she tells us that she learned the rules of this art at a very young age, thanks to her grandmother, a tailor, who taught her all about it.

However, tailoring is not her only passion. She loves the world of music and nightlife. She is a DJ by vocation and therefore she decided to combine the world of fashion with that of sound. Valentina mixes clothes, as well as she mixes records, with every moment of the night, from sunset onwards. And she does a playlist dedicated to each part of her collections, which she divides into four: Cocktail, Dinner, Party, After Party. Each dress has a QR code, which sends directly to the playlist that is dedicated to the moment for which Valentina designed the look.

In the following conversation with Valentina, you can understand the spirit and the vibes behind the brand Nervi.

How was Nervi born and why?
Initially from a personal need: I wanted to design ceremony dresses for myself, then when I started to build the first moodboard, among the images I saved, there was also something else. At that point my husband said to me: "why instead of limiting yourself to the ceremony, don't you tell what you know and the night in general in all its forms, from dusk to dawn?" And so Nervi was born, a brand that tells the story of the night in four stages, cocktail, dinner, party and after party.

Who is the Nervi Woman?
The Nervi woman in primis is me. Everything I design always starts with the question "would I wear it?" Then, I have my muses that I always refer to, Ava Gardner, Gina Lollobrigida, Rita Hayworth, Raffaella Carra, Jane Forth, Loulou de la falaise, Gloria Gaynor, Cher the main ones.

What do you consider to be the strengths of your brand?
The quality and construction of the garments, at first glance they may seem simple, in reality they are all perfectly designed and constructed to always make a woman feel comfortable and at ease, but at the same time perfect in what she wears. For example, the very low-cut dresses all have bodysuits on the inside, so as to keep the neckline firm on the body, the strapless dresses have inner bodices with very soft slits that reach below the breasts, so as to hold even the most prosperous breasts, without constricting the waist. The draperies that seem random are actually pleats that make a natural effect but also that perfectly designed. For me, the construction of the dress is almost like architecture. I always like to think about structure, trying to express maximum elegance but with comfort, also because the night is long and who knows where it may take you...

Why did you think of combining the world of music with the world of Nervi ?
Music has always been my great passion along with fashion, I studied piano for 10 years, sang in various bands and then I DJ. For me, music is an extension of emotions, just like fashion and especially an evening dress, it has to excite you! So why not combine the two together?

Your two grandmothers were your inspiration and were part of your creative process. What have you kept from them in your Brand today?
Everything! One taught me attention to quality, when my parents would take me to her house, she would take me to her wardrobe and show me one by one all her dresses made by her tailors and tell me about the various techniques, she would show me her pleats, her handmade embroideries and I would stay hours and hours looking at them, touching them with care...it was wonderful. The other, through her dresses, would tell me about her balls, receptions, her cocktails, how she had met my grandfather with that dress... and it was all very emotional and it is perhaps for this reason that for me an evening dress must give emotions, because I dreamed, with both of them, that one day I too would have made a woman's eyes shine the way my grandmothers' eyes shone when they told me about their memories and their beautiful experiences.

Text and Interview: Virna Facchinetti @ Modem