Anna October (Q2664)
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Anna October is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Anna October |
Anna October is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
This season fashion has largely chosen to react to the current sociopolitical and economic chaos with a kind of peaceful protest expressed through softness and prettiness. These attributes are, of course, often found in lingerie, by which Anna October is always inspired. “My constant thinking is about the female body and femininity and how we can use clothes as liberating instruments,” she said on a walk-through. Soft power, then.That October and her Ukraine-based team continue to keep the faith in the face of the unimaginable challenges they face is remarkable and laudable. Some people find solace in gardening; this season it was part of October’s inspiration. Top of mind were “life cycles” and how a garden is “blooming, then it’s dying, then new things are coming,” she explained. “I think that in times of big changes in the world, in times of cataclysms, the only way to keep sane and to keep growing as a human is to build something beautiful.”How does October’s garden grow for spring? The signature tulip brassiere detail was back. Some of the silken, bias-cut slip dresses featured tiny floral bead embroideries as delicate as the hand-painted porcelain (think Meissen) they referenced. A more personal memory of Linden blooming in May resulted in an embroidery of that flower. Several crochet dresses featured pendant blooms.There were also a number of then-now hybrids for spring. Sometimes it seems as if October is in dialogue with Madeleine Vionnet as she refines and refines her bias-cut slip dresses. “I’m constantly in the process of developing that dress,” she noted. A black-and-white number could be for a latter day Joan Crawford, much like the first look with what might be the season’s most sensual back, with arches inspired by the architecture in Kiev, updates that brought a Jean Harlow vibe in a manner that felt now rather than vintage.There were playful looks as well: See a meringue-like pink bustier paired with a full skirt with a ruffle-edged dropped yoke. The final three looks spoke to a more pared-back and sophisticated aesthetic. A gold knit dress that a colleague thought fit for a Joan of Arc was knit of a yarn so fine that it resembled metal mesh. More romantic, yet at the same time somehow restrained, was an embellished cape of a nearly sheer Japanese taffeta.
Moving beyond the floaty and slippery materials she usually favors, October used jersey, which clings to the body rather than skims it as satin does, to craft a long white dress with a tank silhouette that extended down to a triangular basque waistline from which the softly gathered fabric falls. This look was an invitation to dance, to glide through the world with confidence and grace. It was mindful, body conscious, not demure—and all the better for it.
25 September 2024
For the last two-plus years, since she landed in Paris just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Anna October has moved from strength to strength against all odds. And she’s seen some long-held dreams come true, as part of the “Women Dressing Women” feature inVogue’s March issue, in an ongoing collaboration with J. Crew (where her latest capsule of summer cocktail-and-wedding-guest looks drops in June), and in her day-to-day life.Now, she reckons, it’s time to build. “After 14 years running a brand, I no longer want to sit around and think about who I am. It’s time to assert myself as a designer,” October offered during a phone call from her fast-growing studio in Kyiv. “Yes, I can do a beautiful dress. But it’s about more than that. I’m looking at bigger themes.” Despite what this lookbook might appear to suggest: no, October is not expecting.Describing these images as an extension of last season’s botanical garden theme, she said she got excited about stylist Omaima Salem’s idea of having Pegah Farahmand photograph mothers and children. “I’m tired of glamorizing only skinny girls in heels,” she quipped. “Now I want to shine a light on the poetry of everyday life.”Leaning into an obsession with vintage glass, porcelain, and lavish dinner spreads, October gleaned inspiration from the hyper-realistic work of British artist Issy Wood, transposing delicate 3D florals onto a white bustier or a Wedgwood blue skirt hand-embroidered by women artisans in Ukraine. Those, plus a sleeveless ivory column dress wrested into a knotted front, represent a new avenue for the designer, who these days finds grounding in texture and relief. A white slip dress with a bodice in beaded crochet looked strong. So did a draped, fitted ivory taffeta bustier, paired here with a black taffeta skirt.But a newfound diversity in terms of age, shape, and life stage—the designer’s most eclectic casting to date—may prove her smartest move of this season. It’s a message of optimism, she allowed. “Pessimism would be boring,” she said. “This collection is about the triumph of life. Amid cataclysm, creating and welcoming new life is the only way.”
9 May 2024
Names can be misleading. Anna October called her spring collection “Pleasure Garden” not as a racy allusion or a sexed-up bid for the male gaze. Rather, it was a collection made for her own pleasure, a condensation of a summer spent with her three best girlfriends in Hydra, Ibiza, Antibes and Kyiv. A “Tender is the Night” adventure, as she called it, and the dresses it inspired. It also reflects where she is in her life right now: a designer with more than 100K followers, a determined businesswoman who has made a go of it in Paris while also keeping her studio up and running in Kyiv, and someone who, on top of that, decided she needed a hobby. So she recently picked up photography and shot this lookbook. “I always wanted to be able to open up my vision of how I see textiles, colors and the woman,” she said.A showroom visit revealed one of October’s largest collections to date, created around the idea that “you don’t have to reveal all.” True to form, it was long on dresses, with bustiers pared back to just the essential and satiny shades of scarlet, salmon-colored hammered fabric, buttery yellow, white and black. A salmon-colored number, for example, had a new back-baring cut that still seemed to retain a sense of mystery. The same fabric returned in a tailored skirt suit that can be worn with or without its bra strap-style belt.Elsewhere, a draped ensemble in butter yellow was not a dress, but rather a top that just covers the shoulder, with a matching skirt lined on the inside “to keep things safe.” A draped black dress likewise had plenty of drama without giving too much away, and a black miniskirt nodded to spring’s obsession with flowers via 3D blossoms. October’s experiments with crochet found her mixing weaves on a soft cotton bodysuit, designed to slip under a satin evening trench. The pieces looked stronger than in the past, but the designer remains a romantic at heart. “In my mind, my clothes are about city dressing but also being sensitive, tender, and always ready to fall in love,” she said.October’s base is right with her on that. So, as it happens, is J. Crew, which is readying a capsule collection under the designer’s name, just in time for the holidays.
3 October 2023
“We are famous for our dresses,” the Ukrainian designer Anna October said by way of introduction. “And then a few collections ago I started to experiment with tailoring. For resort I wanted to put the two together.” This season’s suit was double breasted and slouchy, in a satin-esque fabric that is actually made from regenerated plastic bottle fabric that gives it a subtle sheen. There was also a terrific lightweight maxi coat/dress in tan with hook-and-eye details down the sleeves. Lingerie details have been one of her trademarks, and she enjoys finding new ways to incorporate them in unexpected places. The hook-and-eye-closure details also highlighted two very chic tailored black dresses; one on the empire waist of a strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline, and another the natural waistline of a simple sleeveless sheath. It was believable when she said her version of a sexy dress is “for the pleasure of the woman wearing it.”October knows a thing or two about a sexy dress, and there was one for every occasion. A slinky navy dress with an asymmetrical neckline and sleeve exposed just a hint of shoulder; a sheer black ruffled halter dress with a bandeau and cutouts at the ribs was just the right amount of sexy; a long, spaghetti strap hand-knitted dress with crochet flower embellishments—both techniques that reference traditional Ukrainian crafts—could be perfect for an arty bride. (Actually there were several options here for any and every type of bride, a short tailored jacket-dress with exposed shoulders and floral embellishments, a few slinky satin slip dresses, and even a short ruffled number to change into at the reception and dance the night away.)The women that love October come for their slinky, sensual dress needs, but the best pieces in the collection explored more voluminous silhouettes. A sky-blue A-line gown with a gathered hem and bare-minimum silk straps that tied at the shoulder captured a certain timelessness—sure there was a hint of the ’90s in its straight-cut neckline, but there was also something slightly more retro about it. This was perhaps most evident in a second look made from a skirt in the same blue fabric, this time in a slight trumpet shape, gathered at the hips and draped to swirl across the body. It was worn with a lingerie-inspired beige tank top with bra-strap details criss-crossing across the front and over the shoulder, creating a negative-space cap sleeve, and highlighting the gentle curves of the woman’s chest.
“I always start designing every dress from the décolleté, because it’s the frame for the face of the woman, and when she arrives it’s the first thing you see,” said October.She continues to push her brand forward despite the ongoing war; she photographed the lookbook outside this season in locations that were personally meaningful to her, but without ignoring her country’s reality—the graphic blanket that appears behind the model in one shot is not a blanket but sandbags used to cover the windows of a kindergarten to turn it into a bomb shelter. “It’s important for us to photograph what’s really happening,” she said.
6 July 2023
Anna October was leafing through her rails of subtly detailed lingerie-like dresses, and happily introducing her new tailoring in a showroom in Paris. “This collection is very evening-ish, with a purpose,” she said. “I think this is the spirit: We fight, we live today, we fight again.”Every stitch of October’s work is a part of the unbreakable resistance of Ukrainian youth against Vladimir Putin and his war on their country. While listening to her speaking about how, where, and why her fall collection was made, the more that dawned.The last time October was able to be in Ukraine was on New Year’s Eve. “I was at a rave in Kyiv. Clubs are working during the day,” she related. “It was a beautiful crowd of young people dancing and celebrating life—even while outside it’s air raid alerts and people fighting. At midnight, everyone started to sing the national anthem, and it was so strong. I felt so lucky to be there, lucky to feel it.” Entrepreneurial kids in the city have been setting up clubs and places to eat despite everything, she added. “To donate to the war effort.”Since the Russian invasion a year ago, October has been living between Paris and Ukraine. She travels by train to be with her team in Kyiv who continue to work their incredibly finessed sewing skills under daily Russian bombardment. Every bra-topped dress, minutely-detailed for exuberant enjoyment, has been made that way.Another thing October determined to do while she was in Kyiv was to forge a relationship with the top tailoring company in the capital. “It’s this amazing three-story atelier that makes suits for Zelensky. And all of the strong men in Ukraine.”Volodymr Zelensky hasn’t had much use for suits recently—the world recognizes how he represents Ukraine’s war-footing situation with his combat-casual fatigues at every appearance. By contrast, everything October does might seem female-centrally frivolous. Not so. With every resilient fiber—be it her tailored Kyiv-made suits and coats implanted with sexy hook-and-eye corsetry or her live-for-the-moment party dresses—she’s standing up for Ukraine every bit as strongly as her compatriots. “We will win this war” she said. “We don’t know when it will finish. But that we will win, we have no doubts.”
16 March 2023
Anna October’s life and outlook—personally and professionally—are an object lesson in resilience. To wit, the pre-fall collection was produced in Kyiv, amid missiles and electricity shortages and occasionally sheltering in the metro system. And yet, while October was there, she made a point of taking ballet class and attending a rave in the daytime—since curfew makes nighttime impracticable—that felt “beautiful, sexy, with this will to live to the fullest” (at the end of that event, the crowd broke out in the Ukrainian anthem). On her birthday, New Year’s Eve, she dressed up and ventured out in high heels and a fancy boa.Which is also why this outing has no particular inspiration: “Its all just life happening and celebrating special moments,” the designer said during a showroom visit. If rifling through her own collection for a gown put her in mind of black tie, it also prompted her to incorporate colors—the blue-gray color of the Paris sky, the peachy hue of a Bellini savored at the Opera Garnier—gleaned from her new life in the City of Light (“for me, it’s Bellini or bust,” she offered). Once this collection was ready, the studio threw it into suitcases; one 24-hour train ride later, the designer discovered the full array back in Paris.The bridge between October’s past and present is apparent in crochet and knit numbers—crochet being more cosmopolitan than one might think, having arrived in Ukraine from France via Poland. Those pieces speak to her life story and process: A bunch of artisanally crocheted table linens, potholders, and the like picked up on a trip to Greece last summer became a dress in the spring collection because “sitting there and putting the pieces together” is what makes her happiest. For pre-fall, she continued that thought with a notable crochet top that is “what I dreamed of when I dreamed of being a designer.” Also new this season is knitwear made using traditional Ukrainian techniques, for example a blue bralette or a white bodysuit reproduced from pieces spotted in the archives at the Ivan Honchar National Museum Center of Folk Culture, days before those collections were packed up and transferred to a safe haven.Lingerie is October’s signature, and this season it crops up in ways both obvious and oblique. In the first instance were roses, laser-cut and hand-stitched on Japanese organza camisoles. In a similar vein came bodices with topstitched half-moon busts.
One dress, in body-con black with dramatic cutouts, was strictly for the body-proud. Sometimes, things got slightly complicated, as on a peach knit dress with a thong-like belt that lets the skirt hang nonchalantly on the hips. The subtle came in suiting, which is new this season, produced in partnership with the bespoke tailor to Zelensky and his ministers (“the more Helmut Newton, the better,” October said). That effort resulted in a women’s blazer with hook-and-eye fastenings running up the sleeves, for example. Unfastened, the piece becomes more cape-like. Elsewhere, a white “balloon” bustier dress in Japanese fabric made from recycled bottles is engineered with an inner corset, “to make it serious.” A dress with a black taffeta skirt and white topstitched bodice was a winner.Asked to elaborate on the challenges of her craft, October replied, “Everyone has their issues. Our work is to make beauty happen.” That, plus a zealous devotion to delivering on time, come hell or high water—be it via online operations in Estonia or by train or whatever—makes her a force of nature.
8 February 2023
Like many Ukrainian designers, Anna October went through a time of incredible hardship, which she bravely overcame by finding solace in creativity to turn fantasies and dreams into reality—like making her debut spring collection happen or having a garden built from scratch as if by magic.Some time ago, she bought a piece of land in the forest in Ukraine, which she managed to transform into “a pleasure garden,” she said at a preview. “Planning the garden layout and working at the collection was so exciting and beautiful.” A friend sent her a pertinent quote from Vita Sackville-West’s bookThe Garden,which reads: “Small pleasures must correct great tragedies, therefore of gardens in the midst of war I bold tell.”For her first-ever presentation in Paris, October set up a romantic reverie in an art space, which she filled with buckets of flowers, delicate glass vases, and a tent made from a patchwork of white textiles and crocheted pieces; crochet was a recurring theme in the collection. They were intended to honor traditional Ukraine craft. She explained that museums there are still closed, so she asked the curator of the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kiev if she could visit its archives, where she found beautiful crocheted doilies from a domestic household in the ’50s. She reproduced and transformed them into a handcrafted, sinuously long slip dress, as well as a tiny brassiere, paired with fluid high-waist trousers with delicate lingerie details.October’s creations are about sensuality, grace, and the beauty of the female body: “I’m not concerned about the styling or the merchandising, as I believe that the body should shape the dress,” she said. “I hope my work is a way to bring harmony and beauty into a woman’s life. A new dress has to be striking; that’s why we don’t do hoodies or sweatshirts but special pieces for moments of happiness and excitement.”It would be easy to feel special in one of her sensuous bias-cut satiny dresses revealing a thin-strapped, crisscross open back, or one patchworked in smooth upcycled silk in delicate shades of shell pink and cream. Drawing attention to the décolletage, a primrose yellow bustier was shaped as a corolla of tulip petals, while a lingerie-inspired top was hand-stitched in a plait pattern, hinting at a Ukrainian symbol of femininity.In Anna October’s vision, life is a place where senses have to be celebrated.
It’s a brave, optimistic attitude, which most likely comes when you’ve experienced being so close to losing everything that the miraculous beauty of life and love just jumps at you. “I like my label to be perceived as a date-ready brand,” said October with a smile. “If you want to go for a date, if you want to fall in love, if you are in love—I want you to live that moment in one of my dresses. They’re occasion dresses—but the occasion is just to live a beautiful life and fully enjoy the way you feel and look.”
2 October 2022
Holding up a pale pink and ivory satin slip dress from Anna October’s collection, it sinks in that the person who’d devoted so much skill and attention to perfecting its bias-cut patchwork was sewing it in Kyiv, while air raid warnings were going off. October fled Ukraine and managed to make her way to Paris with a backpack in the early part of the Russian invasion. How she’s continued to produce another collection between Paris and her studio in Kyiv says everything about her own and her young compatriots’ optimistic powers of organization and resilience.“It’s been like a movie. A real movie,” she said, shaking her blonde hair and smiling calmly. Friends who had worked for October before the war making her pretty, romantic clothes were determined to continue. People who’d sheltered in the city, the countryside, and some who’d gone to neighboring countries began to reassemble when the capital seemed safer. “We had fittings on Zoom, while there were air raid alerts. I could hear it. I was like girls, do want to go to the bomb shelter? Shall we stop? And they were like no, we’re fine. Continue the fitting. It was surreal.”This season October wanted a collection with a sexier direction than the artily flounced style she’s evolved since setting up her business in 2012. “To be honest, usually it’s been about some stories that happened to me in the past. But now,” she paused, with an intake of breath, “it’s more about the story that I wish to be happening.” In other words, it’s a wardrobe that imagines a near future of dating, dancing and fun. “I didn’t think rural at all. This is definitely a city girl,” she observed. “But I don’t think of a woman who dresses for others’ eyes. I think that a woman has to appreciate the body she's living in, because it gives her the ability to feel. Because without feeling, without feeling your senses, how do you feel you’re alive?”In close-up, the lingerie-making skills of October’s machinists are impressive. “I knew they could do this,” said October matter-of-factly. These things look as good inside as out.” The finesse of the details—like tiny bra straps inserted at hip-level as a belt suspending a long, liquid silver charmeuse skirt, or hooks and eyes that can be undone to show slices of skin between a bustier and a skirt—has something of the 1990s about it. Not too polished and dressed-up, an air of easy-to-wear cool.
28 June 2022
Kiev Fashion DaysAnna October has been enjoying a steady stream of success the past few years. In addition to being an LVMH Prize finalist in 2015, she's stocked internationally at Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong, and online at Moda Operandi, Shopbop, and MatchesFashion. Her frilly, often off-the-shoulder dresses have a commercial appeal that separates her from other Ukrainian designers, though they had become somewhat predictable.Lately October has been pushing outside her comfort zone, with her Fall 2017 collection a turning point. For the past few months, she's been rediscovering her roots as an art history major and injecting art into her designs. The day before she showed the collection, she collaborated with an old college friend who created an abstract structure, which October used in her lookbook. It served as a cool backdrop to the soft cotton and silk color-blocked dresses with puffed sleeves that dominated the collection. A standout here was the strapless striped dress with a Mohawk ruffle running down the arm. It's essentially an October-style dress, but a whole lot bolder.
7 September 2017
Anna Octoberhas made a name for herself with her romantic signatures. She loves a good ruffle and a nice peasant dress and her clothes sell well. Her style hasn’t varied much over the past few seasons, but she was more experimental this time around, setting her show in a Soviet shopping mall and using an ’80s-era Kim Basinger as inspiration. Bold-shouldered silhouettes featured a catchy black and white squiggle print, while off-the-shoulder looks came in a plaid pattern.Although nice, these dresses weren’t the standouts. Knitwear was where October made a statement: Multicolored turtlenecks decorated with tiers of varying ruffles on the chest will be popular. There was also some great denim: Straight-leg jeans slouched off the hipbone or had a ruched waistband. Let’s see if these pieces, like a few dresses from her previous collections, make it into the windows of Browns Fashion in London.
6 February 2017
Label:Anna OctoberFounder: Anna OctoberYear established: 2012Known for: October’s signature style is the peasant dress silhouette. She typically updates the look with slinky touches, like spaghetti straps, or adds a dose of luxury with tiers of thick ruffles or layers of chiffon. October was a semifinalist in 2014’s LVMH Prize competition and currently sells in Browns Fashion.Spring 2017 inspiration: Usually influenced by coming-of-age stories or heated tales of romance, October this time chose F. Scott Fitzgerald’sTender Is the Nightas a starting point, which resulted in off-the-shoulder numbers and sports references, specifically badminton. Athletic headbands countered the precious nature of the looks.
2 September 2016
Founder: Anna OctoberYear established: 2012Known for: Feminine and light silhouettes. October was also a semifinalist in 2014’s LVMH Prize competition and is sold in Browns FashionWorn by:Daria Shapovalova, Nadiia ShapovalFall 2016 inspired by: The naïveté of being young and in love
10 February 2016
Founder: Anna OctoberYear established: 2012Known for: A "new luxury" concept, feminine style, and precisely tailored silhouettes; October was a semifinalist in 2014's LVMH Prize competitionSpring 2016 Inspired by: Liv Tyler's coming-of-age wardrobe in Stealing Beauty
7 September 2015
Founder: Anna OctoberYear established: 2012Known for: A "new luxury" concept, feminine style, and precisely tailored silhouettes; October was a semifinalist in 2014's LVMH Prize competitionFall 2015 inspirations: 1970s minimalism, Henri Matisse paintings, porcelain cups
28 March 2015