Meet Nilüfer Bracco, the Miami-based Turkish designer behind the PETA-approved vegan silk brand, niLuu

Ever since I was a little girl I was passionate about fashion. What I had no idea how it would come about.

I come from a small town outside Istanbul. I was a bit of an outsider as I grew to be 6’2“ tall, so volleyball became my ticket to see and explore the world around me. After I turned 18, I wanted to take my chances in America and was lucky enough to be recruited to play here. Even then, I would look at fashion magazines and imagine how cool it would be to work in that world.

In the US, I studied interior and fashion design; worked as an interior designer in New York City; met my husband; had a child and all of a sudden everything was on hold. That’s when I decided to embrace fashion starting as a freelance stylist first and also creating a handmade beachwear line. I worked hard with little or no pay. These were years of truly paying my dues. There were joys and failures but I was always learning.

Being a mother made me more sensitive to different things. I abhor animal cruelty but, more broadly, I also see how important it is to make our world sustainable. When I learned about my supplier’s development of this Vegan Silk I was hooked and decided to develop a company around it.

So I put it all together with niLuu: my aesthetics and creativity; my love of fashion and beautiful things; and my desire to make a difference for the things I care about.

The idea and inspiration to launch my silk-wear brand came when I discovered this wonderful Certified-Vegan alternative to traditional silk, with all the benefits of traditional silk but without its issues. It feels great; it’s good for hair and skin; it is more breathable, longer lasting than animal derived silk; and it is sustainable and free of any animal cruelty.

Putting it all together into a brand and company with a product line that I love but also that starts with sustainability as its core, is a dream come true.

Our inspiration comes from nature: flora, fauna, the lush and bold colors that appear in nature, and what they represent. All of these themes are represented in our pieces. We believe in living in harmony with nature, which is why niLuu’s products are made sustainably from the time they are made to the point of being discarded.

There are a lot of technical considerations that I could digress on but, at the end of the day, the way to ensure sustainability, biodegradability and vegan certification is to work with people and companies that are as committed to the same principles as you.

Our suppliers ensure compliance by securing independent 3rd party certification of their processes and products. To get certified, companies go through extensive review processes resulting in improvements in their sustainability objectives.

Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. It is about continuously improving and reconsidering decisions on a regular basis with an eye to reducing our footprint. We couldn’t do this alone and are proud of our partners that are following this same path.

Our pieces are made with Bemberg® Cupro, which utilizes the lint surrounding the cotton seed, which is typically discarded at harvest. The raw material is transformed into a very thin and long fiber that is the basis of the cupro yarn. Our cupro is branded Bemberg, which is exclusively produced in Japan by Asahi Kasei. Bemberg is produced in closed-loop facilities with minimum use of water and minimum waste. In fact, waste is used for power generation, in keeping with sustainable practices.

Our fabrics are then produced in Turkey by İpeker, which is a leader in sustainability and has led the effort in developing the vegan-certified fabric. Interestingly, İpeker actually used to be a silk producer. İpek means “silk” in Turkish. As consciousness on sustainability developed, they realized traditional silk was neither sustainable nor humane and set out to develop alternatives that could deliver the same or better characteristics: color richness, feel, comfort.

Finally our garments are assembled in a woman-owned atelier where they are also packaged ready to be delivered to our customers in our sustainably made and beautiful boxes.

Every day brings about new lessons so this could be a very long discussion.

From a business perspective, one of the more critical lessons was the importance of physical presence in retail stores. We started as an “online-first” brand that launched during the beginning of the pandemic and related lockdowns. While the world has seen a boom in e-commerce, the reality is that for a new luxury brand like us, the boom did not translate into an easy ride on top of a rising tide. Before committing to luxury products, customers need to have developed significant trust towards the company.

But in our case in particular, touching the garment is the moment where customers truly understand how special our product truly is. That is a wow experience that can only be replicated online by a willingness to try the product, which is why we have a very convenient return policy.

It’s hard to pick just one as our pieces are seasonless and never go out of style, but if I had to choose, at the moment I can’t live without my noir Nat shirt.

I think it is one of the most versatile pieces in the collection. I wear it more than any other and I have worn it in all of my business trips and vacations. It is very easy to dress it down or to dress it up. I can’t live without my noir Nat shirt.