Natasha Zinko (Q3477)
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Natasha Zinko is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Natasha Zinko |
Natasha Zinko is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
The invitation for Natasha Zinko’s spring presentation arrived in the form of a chest radiograph revealing two silicone breast implants, along with a postoperative letter from the designer’s fictional medical practice. “The Plastic Clinic will not be liable for any discomfort caused,” it threatened. “In the case that you choose to pursue any kind of monetary reparations, let us remind you that our legal department is widely known for causing 12 bankruptcies.” Ouch—this would not be the holistic service that some of tonight’s showgoers had perhaps become accustomed to. To wit: A preset performance included a swarm of bandaged models admiring their reflections through the Oval Space’s industrial windows. It could have been a scene fromOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.Zinko is not immune to the morbid fascinations that lurk on Instagram’s Explore page, where the algorithm will often serve before-and-after photos of strangers with swollen augmentations. “People are proud of their procedures these days,” the designer said at a preview. “And they’re not afraid to broadcast the process on social media.” A series of T-shirts had been printed with “Insert Tits Here” with dotted incision lines, and supple silicone molds were inserted into half-cup bras and the back pockets of leather trousers and acid-wash jeans. (Denim is, after all, beloved for its curve-accentuating properties.) The now transparent cultural attitude toward cosmetic treatments was otherwise evoked in stiff mesh dresses with corseted panels and silicone-dipped cotton cargos that were just sheer enough to hint at impropriety. “People do this stuff to look sexy!” noted the designer.But this was Zinko’s medical madhouse, where the surgeon’s knife is not to be trusted. Doctors charged about in high-collar lab coats laced up the back like surgical greens, while inpatients hobbled behind them in double-layered jersey hoodies and tracksuit bottoms that were sutured together at all sorts of comically lopsided angles. (The wordbotchedcomes to mind.) The designer’s continued fascination with underwear—something she considers to be fashion’s most democratic item and is, coincidentally, the only thing that a person can take into an operating theater—surfaced in tote bags with waistband branding and minidresses that had been collaged from upside-down Y-fronts. Boxer shorts were sometimes used as makeshift face masks.
If Zinko’s intention was to comment on these extreme vanities, then the 45 minutes we had to sit and watch content creators film videos of themselves on the catwalk before the show could begin did an equally potent job.
13 September 2024
Natasha Zinko is one of just a few designers still imagining a post-societal future. (Even Demna swapped his boggy dunes for the sun-soaked hills of Los Angeles last December.) These dark ruminations have seen the designer travel from monster-torn metropolises to the vast unknown of space, which is where she continued to roam with her resort collection. “I’m Ukrainian, and so, the war changed everything for me,” she said. “I’m in the process of exploring what security and protection might look like in these surreal, unstable times.”Zinko’s space people were photographed with their limbs bound and ski masks stretched across their skulls in deconstructed waistcoats, strapped-up trenches, and bandage dresses. Shrunken flannel bombers were constructed with imposing space-suit sleeves, and wide-leg boiler suits cinched the ribs. Just about everything was belted and branded in industrial hardware. The designer’s six-season collaboration with the stylist Betsey Johnson is now so seamless that it is difficult to know where direction begins and influence ends. “She’s very good,” the designer said. “We speak the same language.”These are menacing designs that will leave the wearer feeling equal parts dominant and dominated. (The sea of vacant stares emanating from this season’s models would suggest both things are true.) “It’s a question of survival,” Zinko said. “Which, to me, also means being comfortable.” A series of distressed denim pieces—hulking jeans, capri pants, ankle-length coats, cut-out minidresses—are deceptively soft to the touch thanks to having undergone several rounds of intensive acid treatments. “These imperfections give the clothes a sense of life.” On the other hand, you’ll note the box-fresh underwear in these pictures. This is perhaps the last facet of a civilized society that Zinko is clinging onto. “Well,” she said, with a smile. “We all need to feel fresh and clean for the day ahead.”
1 July 2024
After leading us through three seasons of camping adventures, Natasha Zinko transported the fashion brat pack to outer space for fall. Drawing inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey,where space travel was depicted as a mundane everyday activity—“like buying a train ticket,” said Zinko—the collection explored themes of life where space attire is essential. She explained her thinking in a preview, saying: “It’s about the human desire to expand and explore, where the extraordinary becomes the ordinary.”The creative vision, rooted in futurism, channeled a ’60s mod-inspired aesthetic, reflecting the era of the space race (which was also the name of the collection) between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union. Space suits were reimagined into everyday wear, featuring a spectrum of whites: structured jackets with capacious sleeves and baggy pants with strips of padded fabric, crafted from bonded neoprene and gabardine. This recurring cocoon-like silhouette, said Zinko, was a tribute to Pierre Cardin’s 1960s Space Age–themed designs.In continuation of the space-age mood, Zinko presented bodysuits that ranged from slouchy to formfitting in hues like bone, eggshell, and off-white, reminiscent of undergarments. Zip-up white and Pepto-pink dresses in mini and midi lengths offered a contemporary take on 1960s air hostess uniforms. Vintage cargo pants were transformed into souped-up baggy trousers paired with matching jackets that draped at the front. While it was refreshing to see Zinko explore new thematic terrain, a little more nuance on the mood board would take her to the destination she so desires.
16 February 2024
For spring, Natasha Zinko transformed Soho Square, a de facto public park in the heart of central London, into a campsite adorned with tents of innumerable sizes. The Ukrainian designer’s pre-fall collection likewise has an outdoorsy theme, but with a cold-weather approach. “It’s a continuation of what we’ve done before, but everything’s a little bit softer and with cold temperatures in mind,” she said in a preview.In the past, Zinko has enhanced silhouettes by adding padded shoulders and torsos to leather separates. This time, she delved into a trompe l’oeil technique, digitally printing body-like patterns onto hoodies, zip-up jackets, and mesh floor-length dresses. Some of these garments showcase intricate crystal embroidery that shimmers in motion. Elsewhere, camel shearling jackets also incorporate the torso motif, while the same fuzzy material was used to create coordinating hot pants, chic little handbags, and knee-high military boots equipped with pockets and stiletto heels.Last season’s lingerie-inspired looks underwent a transformation with the use of ribbed black cotton, which was skilfully fashioned into evening-appropriate off-the-shoulder tops and cut-out midi dresses. Zinko’s affinity for denim saw her utilize remnants from previous collections, cleverly repurposing them into cargo-inspired baggy jeans, military-style jackets, and asymmetrical skirts. While it’s refreshing to see a designer consistently building on and embracing themes from their archive, one can’t help but anticipate what other surprises she may have in store. Perhaps a switch-up is on the horizon for the next IRL show, as ideas might start to feel stale.
9 January 2024
For spring, Natasha Zinko took us outdoors—literally and figuratively. Two images pinned to her mood board informed much of the collection. One, found online, depicted a contemporary man carrying an extraordinary load of bags and boxes on his back. The second showcased a 1778 illustration by Miss Calash, portraying a woman wearing an expansive folding hood to safeguard her elaborate hairstyle. “There are elements of it being about survival,” Zinko mused, “and the world right now is full of environmental and political issues that are forcing us into being reactive in our actions—movement can happen anytime.”Titled The Camp, the collection explored the idea of a nomad on an outdoor expedition. The show took place in the middle of London’s grassy Soho Square and was surrounded by a myriad of tents in varying sizes. There were heavyweight, oversized pants constructed from vintage cargo pants. Tree trunk and mud graphics were digitally printed and strewn across padded nylon puffers—riffing on the muscled jackets from last season. There was even an oversized log-shaped bag adorned with the tree print that could almost fit an entire person in it. Leather wader-style boots of dramatic proportions featured distinct stiletto heels and motorcycle jacket details—these stood out as a sartorial twist on the outdoorsy.Elsewhere, underwear-inspired looks were crafted from heavy stretch cotton into long johns turned capri pants and rompers with button-up details on the back. There were also Italian specialist-crafted leather handbags, mirroring the shape of men’s Y-fronts and perfectly emulating the vertical grooves of fabric. A showstopping highlight arrived in the form of a midsize ball gown fashioned from waterproof nylon, the same technical material found in tents. The skirt could transform into a hood, paying homage to the Miss Calash illustration.
15 September 2023
Natasha Zinko has a flair for imaginative designs with otherworldly cuts. Her recent fall collection, inspired by the monster figure in Marvel’sShe-Hulk,demonstrated her affinity for the fantastical. Although she carried forward the comic book theme in this resort collection, she opted for more pared-back silhouettes—a sensible choice for enhancing commercial accessibility.“It’s a continuation of our last collection, but the shape of the ‘monster’ has shrunken instead of expanded—like they’ve become slightly more tame,” Zinko said in a preview. Nonetheless, muscular accents remained prominent within the lineup. There were leather biker jackets with bulging padding that created an exaggerated muscle effect that was further amplified when paired with matching ultra-miniskirts. Elsewhere, a hot pink skintight bodysuit printed with a nude muscular female form added to the overarching concept.Zinko’s sportswear pieces also deserve attention. A brown tracksuit set stood out with its cropped hoodie and relaxed pants made from washed and distressed cotton. The fabric intentionally featured shredded holes, giving it a worn-out appearance while maintaining a remarkably soft texture. Another eye-catching look consisted of a dress and hoodie combo skillfully patchworked using leftover materials from past seasons.Although tailoring was kept to a minimum this season, two houndstooth looks in particular looked like solid investments. One was an oversized single-breasted coat with frayed sleeves. The other was a high-neck skirt suit—an ideal choice for a more formal outing.
19 June 2023
For fall, Natasha Zinko drew inspiration from comic books, specifically Marvel’s She-Hulk. For the most part, in the metaphorical sense. “There’s a monster that lives in all of us—in the best way possible—no matter who we are, where we come from, or what we do for a living,” the designer said backstage after her London show. “I wanted to celebrate the inner strength that we all have the ability to tap into.”The show opened with a black skirt suit with pronounced shoulders that, upon closer inspection, revealed frayed hems and a six-pack chest imprinted on Lycra. Frays became more severe across the collection, and the six-packs even more impactful—from tailored suits in herringbone and floor-length puffer coats, to oversized T-shirts and baggy jeans—as if the monster had just transformed back into human form. “I wanted the looks to resemble the everyday character, like corporate office workers, or physicians going about their routine, but with a superpower within them.”A figure-hugging dress with a snood, an oversized coat, and a zip-up three-quarter length bodysuit were among the separates with comic book motifs. Skin-tight pieces emblazoned with the souped-up body of a Hulk-like figure were also layered between looks, continuing the overarching theme. Zinko herself took her in brilliant purple, a nod to the Hulk’s shorts that any Marvel fan would recognize. “I feel like I have superpowers with this on,” she beamed. “Trust me, if you wear this color, you’ll get some too.”
18 February 2023
Ukrainian designer Natasha Zinko struggled to contain tears backstage before her show on Wednesday night. “This show is about hope,” she said, noting that her grandmother, aunt, cousins ,and friends were still all in Odessa. “I could not do what I was doing without thinking about Ukraine. This collection made me feel more stable, because I was focused on making the clothes, which helped me not be so emotional in those terrible first few months.”Since March, the designer has gone from being the only Ukrainian in her company to welcoming a handful of compatriots in her London store and studio; many of them came with the strict minimum, with clothes among their cherished possessions.For Spring, Zinko—a self-described punk at heart—focused on what she called “destroyed pieces.” A black dress, for example, was made entirely of recycled leather. Another was done in a patchwork of upcycled denim with a corseted structure, held together with an army of safety pins. A pair of hooded robes in blue or yellow featured a stylized trident, a Gothic revisitation of a Ukrainian national emblem, while traditional garments like the Vyshivanka shirt were embroidered in Odessa and featured little lambs, a totem of positive energy picked up from last season. Silk shirting and a matching tote reprised a television minus the screen—a manifesto against fake news, the designer said, whether in Ukraine or elsewhere.Also, Zinko’s mom did the hats. Though her heart was in it, not all of it worked. On the runway, safety pin meshes came undone. Models struggled to walk in prototypes of a molded shoe done in collaboration with the industrial designer Kacimi Latamene, which looked like the lovechild of a Croc and a stegosaurus. But then again, there are times when wearability takes a backseat to just holding it all together.
23 June 2022
Deliveries have become a modern way of life, and as a result so have paper boxes. Inspired by the piles of them around her, Natasha Zinko designed her spring 2022 clothes around boxes and styled her lookbook with cardboard underpinnings. Dressed in these pieces, the models vaguely resembled blocky old-school video characters. There was a comic aspect to the goings-on, but Zinko’s experimentations actually weren’t all that far removed from the exaggerated shoulders that have been trending lately (even if the looks were designed to deflate). And let’s not forget that for centuries women wore rigid and confining underpinnings.Feeling she hadn’t completely unpacked last season’s theme, for fall Zinko presented Queen of the Boxes II, which abstracted the idea a bit more, and kind of brought it down to size. The designer was thinking about 1980s Madonna andBlade Runner, among other things, as she designed the collection. Speaking of the appeal of that over-the-top decade, Zinko said, “It actually gave so much to everyone; this volume, this kind of freedom, this masculinity that you can have. It gave us women the power to [wear] the masculine shoulders, to wear more suits, in a different way, but becoming more sexy, like kind of genderless… And sex that you can talk about, and I think that’s important.”There have been a lot of 1980s references in fashion, and with the death of Thierry Mugler, we’re bound to see renewed interest in the decade’s strident silhouette. The shoulder shapes Zinko created, especially when seen from the side, are quite interesting. Having studied jewelry design, taking a 3D view of objects must be second nature to her. For fall she also looked at flat boxes in piles and abstracted that into patterns for dresses with pointed hems. There are echoes of present-day Balenciaga in these floral frocks with nifty removable shoulder pads. Zinko’s use of cone shapes at the knee and elbow evokes the sharp corners of boxes, while also looking like the ones that Jean Paul Gaultier popularized.Interested in size and gender inclusivity, she recently added tags to her clothing that read, “for aliens and bunnies,” which helps explain the furry final look. (The season’s bunny print, inspired by the Kama Sutra, might not be SFW.) There’s no denying that Zinko’s built a world of her own. “I have a different perspective and [my world] is also rotating around me. I think what I’m doing now, I haven’t done before.
I’m challenging myself,” she said over Zoom—and she’s daring us to come along with her.
25 January 2022
There was a lot to unpack in this collection by Natasha and Ivan Zinko. There: that’s got the most obvious gag out of the way. On our Zoom Natasha said the box theme emerged from the overload of packaged items that she, like so many of us, have received during this period of record revenues for Amazon. Along with Ivan she then thought about the unboxing videos that are so successful on YouTube, the thrill of unwrapping, and the relationships between the packaging in which so many garments are transported and the humans those garments end up packaging.These thoughts led to a collection neatly stacked with boxy shoulders, boxy pants, a boxy denim mini and much more box-brought boxiness in silhouette. Boxes have been literally worn before, whether by Kendall Jenner at Moschino or by Flight of the Conchords or many others, but this was a fun riff on the theme of packaging, of thinking outside the you-know-what. For those disinclined to take the risk of being bundled into a fulfillment center and dispatched to who-knows-where, Zinko stressed that the pieces are as wearable without their box “crinolines” as with.
26 July 2021
There was a lot to unpack in this collection by Natasha and Ivan Zinko. There: that’s got the most obvious gag out of the way. On our Zoom Natasha said the box theme emerged from the overload of packaged items that she, like so many of us, have received during this period of record revenues for Amazon. Along with Ivan she then thought about the unboxing videos that are so successful on YouTube, the thrill of unwrapping, and the relationships between the packaging in which so many garments are transported and the humans those garments end up packaging.These thoughts led to a collection neatly stacked with boxy shoulders, boxy pants, a boxy denim mini and much more box-brought boxiness in silhouette. Boxes have been literally worn before, whether by Kendall Jenner at Moschino or by Flight of the Conchords or many others, but this was a fun riff on the theme of packaging, of thinking outside the you-know-what. For those disinclined to take the risk of being bundled into a fulfillment center and dispatched to who-knows-where, Zinko stressed that the pieces are as wearable without their box “crinolines” as with.
26 July 2021
For those who think 21st-century fashion can be dangerous, consider the crinoline. During the 19th century these huge hooped skirts, customarily worn in genteel parlors that were mostly lit by candles and warmed by open flame, were hazardous indeed. A Google search will tell you crinoline fires canceled around 3,000 women—surely that seems as exaggerated as the crinoline’s silhouette—but what’s not in doubt is that those victims included Oscar Wilde’s two half-sisters.A contemporary etching of a flaming crinoline found its way onto the mood board for this mother and son crafted collection. Natasha and Ivan had actually been researching garments that represented antiestablishment upheaval—pieces of wearable unrest—while the crinoline’s danger rested in just how conventional it was. Yet all was fuel to the fire of a fun collection in which were heaped tropes that ran from the sansculottes of 1789 to Princess Diana circa the 1980s. Lady Di’s black sheep sweater—recently riffed on by Lanvin, then faithfully reproduced by Rowing Blazers—returned to the field here less literally along with punk leathers, Antoinette-ish corsetry, and hippie florals and bell-bottoms. The Zinkos spoke of “freedom, tension, and intention” down the Zoom and all three were evident in looks worn beyond gender convention that eddied between French maids outfits,Bridgertonreferencing gowns, bro-wear, and more. It was all a little haphazard, but that anarchy was kind of the point.
3 February 2021
A dream for next year’s Halloween, this Natasha Zinko collection, cocreated again with her son, Ivan, explored superstition and fear with an ironic touch that made the results thankfully more akin toScary MoviethanThe Human Centipede. Morticia and Wednesday Addams, both of whom had fantastic personal style, were referenced in cutely spooky-cool ghoul dresses. Betelgeuse’s striped suit was refashioned into masculine loungewear.The Shining’s Grady Twins were given a wardrobe upgrade intoClueless-ish Chanel-referencing bouclé, and Marilyn Manson lurked gloomily in the background. Ailurophobes and triskaidekaphobics won’t relish the abundance of black cat and number 13 references in this collection. Ivan, who happens to be aged 13, said that the cat was based on a real feline who had become familiar with the Zinkos during their lockdown in Ukraine. Added Natasha: “During the lockdown people spent a long time with themselves, and there was a lot of fear, sometimes irrational fear, that they had to confront. This is what made us think about confronting superstition.”Mohair-mix check shirts for men flew thanks to the addition of batwing details on the shoulders, and the brand’s best-selling slides were expressed in black floral and lip print. The Zinkos’ family brand continues to be a little mysterious itself—what lies beneath?—but this made for a diverting enough episode in its ongoing story.
7 October 2020
Natasha Zinko could not host a presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.Speaking from Odessa, Ukraine, alongside her son Ivan, 13, Natasha Zinko explained that this men’s and women’s spring 2021 collection was shot partially in a poppy field 40 minutes outside the city and partially in the nightclub visible in the background of our Zoom call. It’s an impressive feat to pull together a collection at all right now, and here it was achieved by working across London and Zinko’s home city. To add another layer of transnational exchange, all the new fabrics came from Italy and the offering in which they are incorporated was inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.According to Ivan, who worked hand-in-hand with his mother on this collection, the main theme they were exploring here was “society’s influence on people and crowd mentality and the effects of drugs.” To be clear, the Zinko attitude to both guns and drugs is heartily negative. They were also, via the literary starting point, exploring ’70s Americana infused with plenty of Zinko kick. Patchwork flared pants and raw denim jeans made flared by insertions of patch were all fabricated from deadstock from past seasons, as were many other pieces you can see here. Attractive mohair western shirts with Stars and Stripes patching and flannel shirts patched with Zinko’s team’s vision of Thompson’s Chevy, the Great Red Shark, were notable elements in the menswear offer, alongside a pinstripe suit cut wide and boxy-shouldered that Zinko said was unisex.Womenswear included poppy print minidresses and cutesy, hazily-faded heart print house dresses that contrasted against fringed bikers. What was most notable during the Zoom call was how proud and encouraging Natasha is of Ivan—he was basically co-creative director of this collection—even if it felt a little unusual to be listening to clothing descriptions from a boy who goes to the same school as my kids! Anyway, Natasha Zinko is no vanity project: Built on her original jewelry business—this collection features some cool charm chains in silver—Zinko’s apparel performs at retail. As evidence of this The Webster is launching a 3D rendering of pieces from this collection in a digital collaboration to drop in the coming days.
13 July 2020
Natasha Zinko could not host a presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.Speaking from Odessa, Ukraine, alongside her son Ivan, 13, Natasha Zinko explained that this men’s and women’s spring 2021 collection was shot partially in a poppy field 40 minutes outside the city and partially in the nightclub visible in the background of our Zoom call. It’s an impressive feat to pull together a collection at all right now, and here it was achieved by working across London and Zinko’s home city. To add another layer of transnational exchange, all the new fabrics came from Italy and the offering in which they are incorporated was inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.According to Ivan, who worked hand-in-hand with his mother on this collection, the main theme they were exploring here was “society’s influence on people and crowd mentality and the effects of drugs.” To be clear, the Zinko attitude to both guns and drugs is heartily negative. They were also, via the literary starting point, exploring ’70s Americana infused with plenty of Zinko kick. Patchwork flared pants and raw denim jeans made flared by insertions of patch were all fabricated from deadstock from past seasons, as were many other pieces you can see here. Attractive mohair western shirts with Stars and Stripes patching and flannel shirts patched with Zinko’s team’s vision of Thompson’s Chevy, the Great Red Shark, were notable elements in the menswear offer, alongside a pinstripe suit cut wide and boxy-shouldered that Zinko said was unisex.Womenswear included poppy print minidresses and cutesy, hazily-faded heart print house dresses that contrasted against fringed bikers. What was most notable during the Zoom call was how proud and encouraging Natasha is of Ivan—he was basically co-creative director of this collection—even if it felt a little unusual to be listening to clothing descriptions from a boy who goes to the same school as my kids! Anyway, Natasha Zinko is no vanity project: Built on her original jewelry business—this collection features some cool charm chains in silver—Zinko’s apparel performs at retail. As evidence of this The Webster is launching a 3D rendering of pieces from this collection in a digital collaboration to drop in the coming days.
13 July 2020
“It’s all about vision. I see things from different perspectives, and each person understands what they see in a different way,” Natasha Zinko explained after the last of her riotously clad models exited the catwalk.As onlookers will have gleaned, the common ground here was Tokyo street culture meets manga. That’s a high-voltage mash-up, inspired in large part by the designer’s recent trip to Tokyo with her 12-year-old son (a manga devotee). Back home in London, the designer was still sifting through everything she had seen—the exuberance, the wigs, the Americana, the kawaii boys and girls. So she made a photo collage that became prints and, ultimately, with a little help from the manga artist Mad Dog, the London punk scene, and her own schoolgirl uniforms, put together her biggest men’s (and women’s) show ever.Zinko checked a whole lot of boxes, from wild prints to lumps and bumps, repurposed and recycled fabrics, corsetry, tartan, houndstooth, denim, andTerminator-esque futurism. Some ideas were clearly traceable (Galliano, Westwood, and Kawakubo all got nods). But what made it a collection of the moment—and clearly of the Instagram generation—is that Zinko cut a wide swath, ran it through her personal filters, and came up with something that she, and her customers, feel like they can own.
15 January 2020
“It’s all about vision. I see things from different perspectives, and each person understands what they see in a different way,” Natasha Zinko explained after the last of her riotously clad models exited the catwalk.As onlookers will have gleaned, the common ground here was Tokyo street culture meets manga. That’s a high-voltage mash-up, inspired in large part by the designer’s recent trip to Tokyo with her 12-year-old son (a manga devotee). Back home in London, the designer was still sifting through everything she had seen—the exuberance, the wigs, the Americana, the kawaii boys and girls. So she made a photo collage that became prints and, ultimately, with a little help from the manga artist Mad Dog, the London punk scene, and her own schoolgirl uniforms, put together her biggest men’s (and women’s) show ever.Zinko checked a whole lot of boxes, from wild prints to lumps and bumps, repurposed and recycled fabrics, corsetry, tartan, houndstooth, denim, andTerminator-esque futurism. Some ideas were clearly traceable (Galliano, Westwood, and Kawakubo all got nods). But what made it a collection of the moment—and clearly of the Instagram generation—is that Zinko cut a wide swath, ran it through her personal filters, and came up with something that she, and her customers, feel like they can own.
16 January 2020
“I want people to just chill,” said Natasha Zinko after her Spring 2020 show. Her loose silhouettes and comfortable shapes were intended to keep the wearer relaxed and unfazed by the chaos of our modern era, hence the many jumpsuits, slouchy suits, and pouf skirts that stood away from the body in her lineup this morning. Nobody conveyed the mood better than Luka Sabbat, who slouched and slumped down the runway in a washed black jumpsuit, emoting an exacting I-don’t-give-a attitude at the bright hour of 9:00 a.m.—if anyone could sell this vision of leisure life, it was him.Zinko had a larger point to her collection, though, about sustainability. Much of her fabrications were leftovers from past seasons or recollected from thrift stores. She used vintage bandanas to make knotted tops, trousers, and suiting, and built pockets into everything so that one could carry a reusable water bottle or a packed salad wherever one goes. The effort is valiant, especially considering Extinction Rebellion’s protests and demonstrations throughout London Fashion Week this season. For a designer of Zinko’s means to get serious about environmentalism is really saying something, though what she said herself says it all. After the show, she spoke about creating upcycled clothes so simply rendered you could make them yourself at home. Without a strong enough design language in her sort of haphazard collection, maybe you should.
15 September 2019
Expansive, impetuous, and loud, Natasha Zinko’s clothes inhabit a broad spectrum that runs from “what the hell” to “hell yeah” and everywhere in between. Here, her hip-tilting asymmetric corset denim dresses and shirting with full arms and frayed hems were super cute, as were her overcoats that trailed down to the ground on the right-hand side, made to be worn open with tattered nonchalance. Zinko—like so many others on the carousel right now—spoke of sustainability issues, here via some pieces featuring panels of two-year-old upcycled floral fabric from past collections used as swishy, sashy belts or layered as ruffles at the frayed hems of a pair of denim cut-off shorts. A non-recycled cashmere sweater featuring the recyclable three-arrow triangle motif and the statement “I can afford it” in Cyrillic script was another slightly enigmatic contribution to the global emergency.This season Zinko’s photo-print, based on her own shots of a flower market in her home city of Odesa, Ukraine, were used to blinding effect on ornamentally technical-wear and shirting. Alongside that were some workwear-inspired pieces including a men’s pant in fine-chino cotton made to resemble a pair of overalls half-worn, with the sleeves slung around the waist. A complementary zip-pocketed jacket in the same khaki was gimmick free and pretty great, as were the quilted flannel fleece-lined check shirts and pants: ’90s style nicely revived.
10 June 2019
Natasha Zinko turned out to be bracingly WTF this morning. The show was held in the atrium of the Oxford Street flagship of Next, a quiet titan of British high street apparel with which Zinko had collaborated last year. The models came down the escalator from homewares and menswear (suits for £89), then turned towards the Lipsy concession before looping around the womenswear floor—Next’s main line is looking bright, light, and unsparing with the spots—and headed back to kidswear and Clarks up towards Costa coffee.The collection, which now includes menswear, had a zillion ingredients that Zinko had chucked into her creative NutriBullet before leaning hard on the button. The recurring photoprint on shirts, bags, and pants showed a crowd of people with smiley or frowny faces obscuring their real faces and had been taken by Zinko while she was waiting with her son Ivan to get into Winter Wonderland. There were more utility pockets than could ever be of use, on mismatched-color low boots and matched-color high ones, denim harnesses and shirts. Suits included accentuated hook loops at the neckline and cutaway panels by the thigh. Hoodies and pockets featured the phrase “reverse psychology propaganda,” or, in Cyrillic, the Russian word for what Zinko said means having an eye for a bargain (she’s trying to keep her price points down). Divertingly bananas, this Zinko collection was fun to window-shop.
17 February 2019
“I would wear this to a gala dinner,” says Natasha Zinko, pulling a roomy lilac maxi dress from the rails of her Pre-Fall 2019 collection. “The denim collar gives it this easy evening glamour.” That draped gown brings prettiness to an offering that overall has a far tougher attitude. It was while in Florida that Zinko took the photograph that has become the unlikely core of the lineup. The garbage print is an image of a trash can (and van) in the throes of cleaning up Miami Beach. Clearly, one designer’s trash is another’s treasure. Seen here, its vivid blues and yellows take on an alluring hyperreality. “There’s a beauty to it,” says Zinko of the shot, which is printed onto body-con zippered dresses, sleeveless sporty separates, and even an unstructured boxy cross-body bag. It’s invested with a surprising luxury when layered onto the back of a deliciously soft long shearling coat.Zinko’s starting point this season was Duke of Windsor suits. This gave rise to a lovely checkered shirtdress and a series of roomy plaid two-pieces with unfinished hems and a fresh, vibrant feel. This offering marked the sophomore outing of Zinko’s menswear line, created in collaboration with her son, Ivan; hence the mannish suiting that came with shorts rather than long pants. Overall, Zinko is showing a deepening confidence, with looks that toe the line between youth and maturity, grit and glamour. In the words of her son (and a slang phrase inscribed onto many of the clothes): It’s “drippy no slippy.”
17 December 2018
The concrete car park of the Chelsea Sorting Office in West London felt like an appropriate site for Natasha Zinko to explore the high-low theme at the core of her Spring 2019 collection. “We wanted it to feel real,” said Zinko, whose photographs of the British capital’s streets, strewn with petals and cigarette ends, became the basis for an elevated, experimental series of looks. The London-based Designer also enlisted the help of her son, Ivan (best known as @thegoldenfly), this season. The 11-year-old, who had special dispensation to skip school, collaborated with his mother on a capsule of men’s looks under the banner, Duo. “It’s a play on the idea of doubling up,” Zinko said backstage of the oversize silhouettes, which were borne out of her son’s appreciation of contemporary hip-hop culture and are an extension of his existing childrenswear line.The Instagram wunderkind was also the mastermind behind the show’s soundtrack, which he’d recorded with producer Scott Storch on a recent trip to Miami. As that beat-laden track blared out of the speakers, overlooked by builders on a neighboring site, models spilled out of their very own party bus in lurid lime silk slips.The wordfufu, which is slang forfake, was inscribed onto leotards and checked corseted clothes, some of which also featured the brand’s logo on monochromatic bands akin to ticker tape. Elsewhere, there was Barbie pink suiting and zippered tracksuit jackets miniaturized into crop tops with slick vinyl pencil skirts, triple-tone denim, and ball gowns rendered from T-shirt jersey fabrications. This whole irreverent mix was summed up in a single phrase inscribed into a shirt that read: “I can and I will.” This upbeat offering will serve to strengthen Zinko’s youthful allure.
18 September 2018
“Resort dressing should be easy,” says Natasha Zinko, who brought the sunshine to London’s Mayfair with an uplifting collection that combined her ’80s staples with effortless, beach-party looks. The Ukrainian designer once again cited the power decade as her inspiration, a reference that came through clearest in the shell suits and a color palette that ran from mint green to lilac.The most successful looks here had an uncomplicated feel. Particularly the pair of two-in-one dresses that married sporty hooded tops to palm print maxi skirts. Their leafy prints stemmed from a series of photographs that Zinko captured on her latest Florida trip.In lieu of bags, Zinko adorned much of the collection with roomy cargo pockets (when you’re on holiday even accessorizing can equate to over-thinking). A pair of pale denim thigh-highs had enough pockets to carry your loose change, your phone, and your charger. A tailored tuxedo jacket came complete with its own camouflage print pouch – Zinko’s take on a bum bag – built into it with a hessian-hued belt. Elsewhere, Zinko experimented with pattern, combining camo, plaid, and gingham against leopard print. It worked best on a quilted oversize lumberjack shirt that also came in a floor-length version that will be a nice layering piece in mid-winter. A super fun, neon-pink princess dress in a sporty waterproof fabrication with zip detailing took it right back to the beach.
15 June 2018
Power dressing was on the agenda at Natasha Zinko’s show today. She isn’t the only one grappling with a corporate wardrobe this season, so it was no surprise to hear Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” blaring on the label’s soundtrack. Models gathered in the middle of the runway, all dressed in identical gray blazers, before being plunged into darkness.When the lights went back up, they’d shed those frumpy jackets to reveal sparkling looks that seemed ready for an all-night party. Feathered strapless minidresses were paired with patent leather thigh-highs and baggy Aladdin pants. Zinko came to design via the fashion blogosphere, and her clothes have the kind of flashy attention-grabbing quality that is tailor-made for Instagram. Even the most low-key looks were embedded with a social media–ready message; see Italian cashmere sweaters and shearling coats with Cyrillic intarsia that spelled out “too sexy” and “love forever.” Though the collection was derivative in places, her living-for-the-weekend ideas had a sense of fun about them that will appeal to the glam, out-of-office types in Zinko’s circle.
20 February 2018
Natasha Zinko is starting the new year on a high. Fresh from her annual family sojourn to Miami, she’s buoyed by the news that the latest addition to her burgeoning international customer base is none other than Beyoncé. There’s certainly a growing buzz about the brand—but the real headline from her Mayfair HQ is altogether closer to her heart: “I’m in love,” beamed the Ukrainian designer, whose euphoria infused her Pre-Fall collection. “And I want to spread that love.”True to her word, sentimentality was writ large in the clothes. Many of the 24 looks were scrawled with Russian script for “I’m in love” in a print wrought from the designer’s own impressively elegant hand. “It’s more sensual, and real, in your own handwriting,” said Zinko of the diaphanous shirting, knits, and separates all emblazoned with amorous proclamations. There were similarly personal touches in the breezy floral dresses whose vivid digital prints were renderings of Zinko’s own photographs of pansies and dahlias shot on a visit to her homeland. To fuel the tender tone, the designer took sartorial notes from the 1970 filmLove Story. Certainly the mood throughout was light and fresh. Though with its emphasis on sportswear, the collection seemed at times to owe more to Jane Fonda than Ali MacGraw. The lineup’s ’80s feel was largely thanks to the presence of a series of rainproof track pants, in lilac and cerise, topped with little cropped zip-up jackets. For Zinko, these hardworking pieces will take you from “the gym to the office”—presumably all in the beat of a heart.
12 January 2018
An Eastern European streak has been coursing through fashion lately, and Demna Gvasalia and Gosha Rubchinskiy are at the forefront of the conversation on the runway. Natasha Zinko is based in the U.K., but her roots trace back to Ukraine. Today she tried to reinterpret some of the most distinctive sartorial motifs of her homeland, starting with the traditional floral scarf. The show opened with a passage of looks that pieced together many petaled patterns, the most convincing of which was a quilted robe coat.In the show notes, Zinko described her vision for the collection as “an eclectic clash,” a juxtaposition of “supreme femininity . . . with harder utilitarian references.” She attempted to strike that balance with scarf print dresses of varying lengths that were paired with Ukrainian-style knee-high work boots, though too often those dresses appeared flimsy. The tailoring was also overly ambitious in scope, and the oversize deconstructed blazers and trenches lacked a sense of polish. That said, her homespun aesthetic hit the mark with a charming camo coat that was spliced with rose-sprigged quilting.Reconstructed jeans, military gear, and sportswear are all having a moment—thanks in no small part to Vetements—and Zinko threw in her two cents with tracksuits that were patchworked together and stamped with a slogan that read “Back to the Future” in Ukrainian. The designer managed to chart new territory with her reworked denim pieces, and the shredded jackets that had floral patterns peeking through are likely to be a hit, both at home and abroad.
19 September 2017
These photographs, shot next to a fire escape and a pile of builder’s pallets behind Natasha Zinko’s workshop in the deeply not-Riviera London neighborhood of Acton, really undersell this collection. The location should have been Cannes, or Odessa (the designer’s home town), or at the very least Eastbourne: it demanded a backdrop of dappled azure waters, arcing white hull, and bottle-filled ice buckets.Zinko’s riff was on that hoary old chestnut that is nautical fashion, and with a fair gust of joie de vivre to speed her way, she tackled it as one might expect from a playfully-inclined member of the supranational street style set. Her creative tide ebbed between outerwear and underwear, so an anchor-badged bodysuit with the Cyrillic declaration, “I love you and the sea,” was worn under a broad-of-cut gray suit. A sports bikini whose bottom half declared, “wait for me and I will come back,” was worn with a yacht club shorts suit whose jacket featured cut outs at the waist to let the wind in (“I sent one to my husband,” said Zinko, referring to the bikini bottom). A tulle-shrouded corset was teamed with clean white pants and furred slides, and a pair of red cotton jersey slouch-pants were paired with a rabbit-collared denim jacket and pink fur slippers: stuff for chilling on deck in. Her huge lattice-texture broderie dresses in blue, red, or white with enormous nugget-shaped sleeves and a shoulderless tulle-flecked prom dress looked a breeze for the bold to cruise in. The double jeans didn’t do it for this sailor, but every pant has its port. The check silk pieces at the end were calming. Particular clothes for particular girls that felt particularly pricey. Definitely not dull and a little hard to fathom.
20 June 2017
Natasha Zinkois a jeweler by trade, though it’s ready-to-wear that’s helped the Ukrainian-born designer make her name—she has a store on Maddox Street, one of the most exclusive fashion addresses in London. That said, if you’re one of her 100,000-plus Instagram followers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that she was a street-style star. Zinko uses her social media presence to put her clothes into a real-world context—the quirky nature of her designs make for stylish, everyday fashion moments that are infinitely snappable.This season, the most compelling selfie motif came in the form of a bunny rabbit. It isn’t the first time the designer has toyed with this charming graphic before, though even seasoned fans of the label would be hard-pressed to pick up on the reference immediately. Admittedly, Zinko’s affection for the long-eared creature was expressed more obliquely than you’d expect, in the form of jumbo-sized polka dots. That classic leitmotif was most compelling on Zinko’s intarsia fur coats, where circular splashes of color made for an eye-catching point of difference—hardly your grandma’s mink fur coat. Other traditional fashion tropes in an everyday wardrobe were taken apart and remixed anew, including denim miniskirts that appeared to be refashioned from sawn-off jean jackets. Zinko has a knack for pushing seemingly familiar fashion tropes to a new place—hand-knit asymmetric ruffled sweaters anyone?—without alienating fashion enthusiasts at an entry level. She described her ’80s-meets-’40s-inspired collection as the right combination of “dreamy and happy.” With high-waisted vinyl pants, thigh-grazing cutoffs, and mink-covered mini handbags, Zinko was able to temper her fashion-forward impulses with approachability. Her cutesy-cool aesthetic for Fall 2017 is sure to rack up plenty of likes IRL.
20 February 2017
Natasha Zinko’s new Pre-Fall collection is a bright and breezy tribute to her Ukrainian homeland. “It’s about the countryside and returning to your roots,” said the London-based designer, who regularly escapes to the countryside that surrounds her Odessa hometown. All this Arcadian dreaming brings a new naïveté to the clothes: Simple hedgerow roses in soft blush are embroidered haphazardly onto hems and sleeves. Everything has a love-worn feel, from the raw-edged tweed suiting to the offbeat tone of the lace that adorns a pretty prairie dress. “It’s the idea that whatever you have to hand, you use, babushka style,” explained Zinko of the peasant-y piece, which comes in miniature for those with a taste for matching mommy-and-me looks.Not that Zinko ever lets things veer into saccharine territory: She counterbalances the pastoral prettiness with mannish checked shirts that are modeled on the traditional Russianrubahabut have a distinctly Seattle circa 1990s flavor. “Here is my countryside, here is my home,” reads the Russian-English transcribed text taken from a wistful Soviet folk song that’s printed onto some of the shirting in bold block letters. Even checked peasant dresses are toughened up with the addition of leather bustiers. The checks aren’t the only grungy top note that Zinko strikes: There’s a sherbet hand-knitted cardigan with giant buttons, which could perhaps be worn with a chartreuse silk slip dress and matching fluffy mules, that’s already a big hit with buyers. Okay, so it’s not exactly rural-ready attire, but it proves once again that Zinko can bring the kind of feel-good fashion we all need in our lives right now.
2 February 2017
Natasha Zinko, now in her third season as a ready-to-wear designer (prior to running her full line, she made jewelry), presented her Spring collection under the premise of a “Sunday morning in Ukraine,” her home country—though she lives in London. “It’s all centered around the kitchen,” she said with a laugh. Throughout her makeshift space, “laundry” (in fact, old pieces from prior collections) hung from clotheslines. There was also a DJ blaring loud music.Now for the clothes: Zinko cited a crochet-knit bird that her grandmother made as her original inspiration, which took flight into a cornucopia of references ranging from Marie Antoinette to Japanese kimonos to “still tomboy!” One such kimono was layered over a floral-print sheer dress; denim rode low and fell loose, often with frayed edges; the palette varied from acid pink (which looked good, as a casual suit) to pale lilac. The best piece was a psychedelically dyed lingerie dress—we could see a cool L.A. girl running around in it (and Zinko sells well at Maxfield, the Los Angeleno temple of high fashion). However, given this collection’s overarching incoherence, it seems this designer has a ways to go in regards to both conceptualizing and editing.
18 September 2016