NUBU will appear on the Design Pop-up by ELLE runway in Budapest at 6 pm on 21 November. The programme alone would be event news, but the AW26/27 collection poses a precise professional question: how can the weight of wool, hand felting and painted surface form a landscape while the garment remains able to move?
Surface is not decoration
The official Budapest Central European Fashion Week profile says wool fabrics form the basis of the winter collection. Hand felting and individual hand painting create its characteristic textures. This distinction matters. Paint is not an added motif on a finished garment and felt is not merely a decorative patch. Both change density, drape and the way the surface catches light.
The collection uses blurred colour transitions and layered, landscape-like forms. Such a system can become too heavy. The design task is to keep layers from locking the shoulder, hip or stride. Strong cutting does not hide the thickness of the material. It gives that thickness a direction.
Vogue Adria’s independent February runway review highlighted a black oversized NUBU jacket with a rich texture. It confirms that volume and surface are genuine parts of the label’s current winter language rather than vocabulary found only in a release.
Two design viewpoints
NUBU sample collections are made by Judit Garam and an eight-person creative team. The official profile says Liza Borcsik has participated as design assistant since autumn 2024 after graduating in textile design from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. The meeting of generations matters when technique serves the garment instead of becoming a demonstration.
A handmade surface is strongest when it offers detail up close and a clear silhouette from a distance.
The label states that it uses local and European manufacturing as well as recycled and deadstock materials. These are sustainability claims, not automatic proof. Fibre composition, manufacturing location, quantity and care instructions remain the useful checks for a specific piece.
What to watch on the runway
On 21 November, watch how treated wool moves, whether a painted transition continues across pattern lines and what body proportion the landscape layering creates. Runway light can amplify texture, but utility appears in the freedom of the shoulder, elbow and step.
Hungarian buyers have the advantage of proximity. The garments do not have to be interpreted only through a screen, and questions about material or care are easier to ask. Repair, cleaning and surface change are part of the life of hand-felted and painted wool.
NUBU’s strongest proposition is not that nature has been copied onto clothing. Landscape becomes an editing method made from layers, blurred boundaries and changing mass. The November show will reveal whether that idea can keep moving with a wearer after the runway.
