Monica. Each co-founder was a member of the 1970s punk scene in
L.A., and had a passion for bands like Love and Justice, The Cramps,
Sex Pistols, The Clash, Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division, KMFDM,
along with the style popularized by these bands, which included the
thick soled workbooks that were popular with punk subcultures in
England at the time. In the early 1980s, NaNa began making their
own shoes in a Mexican factory where traditional Western shoes
were manufactured for cowboys and ranch hands. In the late 1980s
and early 1990s, NaNa grew to open two stores in New York, one on
the Upper West Side and another downtown on Prince Street. Chloë
shopped at these stores, and sported NaNa boots on the pages of Sassy
Magazine. Chloë continues to wear a treasured pair of NaNa combat
boots, and in 2009 connected with one of the founders of NaNa, Paul
Kaufman, after mentioning the brand in an L.A. Times article. Chloë
Sevigny for Opening Ceremony Pre-Spring 2011 resurrects some of
Chloë’s favorite styles from the original NaNa archives. All shoes are
manufactured in the same Mexican factory as the originals, made by
traditional Western shoemakers using all leather uppers and Goodyear
welt soles (a shoemaking technology that dates back to the early 1900s).
