28th May 2026, New York City: Naia, a new discovery platform connecting fashion lovers with one-of-one clothing and accessories from emerging designers & independent makers, today announces its official launch. With a dual ambition, Naia aims to make one-of-a-kind fashion easier to discover and keep in circulation, while helping independent designers build the attention, community and demand their work deserves.
Catering to the growing number of shoppers who seek more individual, expressive wardrobes rooted in story and craftsmanship, Naia takes the fragmented landscape of under-the-radar designers scattered across Instagram, standalone websites, niche marketplaces, and local networks, and unifies this ecosystem into a curated, community-powered app that blends editorial discovery, intimate brand storytelling, and taste-led personalization.
As social commerce continues to fuel how people discover and desire products, Naia positions itself as the go-to destination for finding something more unique; a platform built to celebrate taste, scarcity, craft, and community.
At launch, Naia features over 150 designers and over 10,000 pieces. Every designer is hand selected for its originality, approach to craft, use of sustainable or recycled materials, and commitment to one-of-one or small-batch production.
The problem:
Small fashion like this is hard to find – the landscape is fragmented & the discovery process time consuming. At the same time, fashion discovery has become repetitive, often surfacing the same mass-market trends. For designers, building demand is equally challenging. Limited resources, time, and access to global audiences make it difficult to gain visibility and grow sustainably.
There is also a circularity gap. While established luxury items have clear resale value, one-of-a-kind pieces from emerging designers lack resale data, making it harder for buyers to justify long-term value.
Naia is the solution.
How It Works:
Most designers building brands today prefer to run their business through their own website, allowing them control over their brand narrative, customer relationships, margins, fulfillment, and storytelling. Naia supports this.
Instead of taking over, Naia amplifies, sitting on top of a brand’s existing ecosystem as a discovery layer that helps drive demand. Through Naia’s drop infrastructure, the app helps brands showcase their products to a larger audience in a high-anticipation format, building increased global demand, and turning each launch into a moment.
The app will offer a myriad of community-powered social discovery signals, like item saves, designer follows, taste polls, and a ‘first-dibs’ function. Even after an item sells, it remains visible on site so users can express interest in purchasing it from the current owner in the future. This creates early indicators of resale demand for one-of-a-kind items— encouraging circularity and offering owners greater confidence in the long-term value of their purchases.
The first-dibs function caters to a broader shift in how consumers think about ownership. Resale is increasingly becoming a financial behavior, as shoppers use it to generate income and fund future purchases [1] Buying and selling are becoming more connected as people cycle value through their wardrobes rather than treating purchases as one-time events. Naia’s first-dibs service taps into this, offering the opportunity of resale in the same destination as where they buy new.
The more someone uses Naia, the more the platform can understand their taste, preferences, fit, budget, and shopping behavior — creating a more personal discovery experience over time, with the help of an AI layer that deeply enhances discovery without removing the magic of the “aha” moment in shopping.
As consumers increasingly expect shopping experiences to feel both more efficient and more personal, Naia is designed to balance AI-powered discovery with individuality and human connection. 82% of consumers want AI to reduce the time they spend researching what to buy, while at the same time Gen Z shoppers are seeking more special pieces that express their personality. In the same vein, nine in ten consumers cite like-minded communities as a key driver of brand connection [2] — reinforcing the growing demand for discovery experiences that feel curated, participatory, and taste-led rather than purely algorithmic.
NAIA COMBINES AI WITH REAL SIGNALS FROM CUSTOMERS, DESIGNERS, AND THE COMMUNITY . WHILST AI HELPS PERSONALIZE DISCOVERY, IT IS FUELED BY HOW EACH REAL MEMBER OF THE NAIA COMMUNITY SAVE, REACT, FOLLOW, AND EXPRESS INTEREST IN THE APP’S INVENTORY, AS WELL AS BY THE STORIES AND CONTEXT DESIGNERS SHARE ABOUT THEIR WORK.
WHAT NAIA OFFERS IS AN END RESULT THAT IS A MORE HUMAN, TASTE-LED DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE— HELPING SHOPPERS FIND PIECES THAT GENUINELY RESONATE, RATHER THAN SIMPLY SURFACING WHAT IS MOST POPULAR OR TREND-DRIVEN. MY VISION IS TO BECOME THE GLOBAL DISCOVERY PLATFORM FOR INDEPENDENT FASHION.
MILONI SHETH, FOUNDER
For designers
Naia helps designers build visibility, anticipation, and demand around their work. The goal is to help each designer turn limited-edition launches into a brand moment, deepen audience loyalty, and convert shoppers into fans.
“THE COMMUNITY-POWERED MODEL OF NAIA IS INTENTIONAL. IT CREATES A SPACE WHERE INDEPENDENT DESIGNERS AND SMALLER BRANDS CAN BE DISCOVERED FOR THEIR ORIGINALITY, WHILE RECEIVING REAL SIGNALS FROM A COMMUNITY THAT VALUES CRAFT, INDIVIDUALITY, AND POINT OF VIEW. THE GOAL IS TO BECOME THE GLOBAL, COMMUNITY-LED DESTINATION FOR INDEPENDENT FASHION – A NEW WAY PEOPLE DISCOVER, SHARE, AND PARTICIPATE IN THE INDUSTRY . WE ARE BUILDING A MARKETPLACE WHERE TASTE SHAPES DISCOVERY, ORIGINALITY DRIVES DEMAND, AND CIRCULARITY IS BUILT INTO THE LIFE OF EVERY PIECE.”
-MILONI SHETH, FOUNDER
Naia is poised to own the white space between traditional marketplaces and social platforms for the next generation of fashion designers. Through curated drops, social discovery, and a future circular resale layer, Naia is accelerating the desirability of one-of-a-kind designers, creating a more exciting and sustainable way for independent fashion to be discovered, and kept in circulation.
The Naia app will be available to download on the IOS app store from 27.05.2026
