It’s a great time to be a weird little brand. Just ask Chopova Lowena.
On Tuesday, Alexander Skarsgard wore a fit from the label to the Los Angeles premiere of “Wicker,” which has him playing a storybook suitor with a Brawny Man body made from branches.
People tend to notice anything Skarsgard wears now, but this ensemble had particular zest: a tight tee printed with a photo of his “Wicker” co-star Olivia Colman, paired with one of Chopova Lowena’s signature pleated carabiner skirts. Those fall somewhere between rock climbing gear and Bulgarian folk wear, with a spritz of Hot Topic.
“We thought it was odd, but in the best way,” said Emma Chopova, one half of the British design duo, of their reaction when Harry Lambert, Skarsgard’s stylist, reached out. “He does wear fun stuff, so it made sense.”
The shirt was inspired by pin cushions that wives made for their off-at-war husbands. Chopova and her partner, Laura Lowena-Irons, have made similar ones for a couple of years now, showing a dog, a cat, a pair of friends. This was the first time they used an image of an Oscar-winning actress.
“I thought it would be so fun for Alex to wear something with Olivia Colman’s face on it, especially because in the film his character is literally created to love and worship her,” Lambert said. “I wanted the whole thing to feel fun and playful, but also really tender and sweet.”
In this moment, when celebrities know that looking slick won’t get them noticed on the carpet, small but sure-footed labels like Chopova Lowena have become all important to stylists like Lambert. Skarsgard in particular is now known for his kinky theme dressing. While promoting the leather-daddy rom-com “Pillion,” he wore some oily leather moto boots, a tee that said “Hot Buffet, available all day,” and a Magliano button-up with a dildo and a bong printed on the front.
These are pointed choices for a middle-aged dad. (And ever since Harry Styles, most any apparently straight man in a skirt prompts some accusations of gay-baiting.) Yet the actor paired them with an “oh, this is totally normal” grin.
Chopova Lowena fits with that subversion-with-a-smile sensibility. The impish duo has risen in the London fashion community by hosting runway shows with dog models and making stud-collared tunics fit for bar maids from hell.
“You’ve got to have some fun and some silliness in the world,” Lowena-Irons said. “That’s in our personalities and how we like to dress ourselves. So that’s how we design.”
In August, the brand opened its first store in London, where those skirts — which are marketed primarily as women’s wear but which men buy as well — take up much of the sale’s floor. The skirts cost around $1,000. Custom versions run more than that.
The pair hit on the idea for the skirts during their studies at Central Saint Martins. There they started to hone their comely yet gorpy mix, inspired by today’s folk festivals (Chopova was raised in New Jersey to Bulgarian parents), where attendees wear sneakers with their pinafore dresses.
“Emma and Laura do fashion like improv — constantly asking, ‘Yes, and?’ of themselves, their collaborators and their customers,” said Steff Yotka, the editor of i-D Magazine. “It’s a rare skill in today’s overly edited world, where most are afraid to challenge or question.”
A longtime fan of the label, Yotka usually turns up at Paris Fashion Week with her suitcase stuffed with her collection of Chopova skirts. “It’s a uniform designed for stomping around with your friends, giggling,” she said.
The Row cracks a smile
Disregard for perfection is unusual for the Row, whose clients tend to kneel at the altar of quiet luxury. Which is why it was disarming to see, in the brand’s latest ad campaign, the model Gemma Ward wearing a guileless grin. Her pastel hair wisps around her head as if the stylist never showed up for the shoot.
What was going on here? And why did I like it so much?
Ward, born in 1987, and the twins behind the Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, born in 1986, all came to their fame quite young. Ward was just a teenager when she appeared on the cover of American Vogue in 2004. It’s easy to imagine the Olsen sisters poring over magazines featuring Ward as their tastes alchemized. Just as the Olsens are nostalgia bait for many millennials, Ward might be that for the Olsens, making her a proxy for the mysterious fashion sylphs.
But the image seems to be more than a longing backward gaze. In the ad, Ward represents a form of liberation — permission to smile, to look mussed up, to be a grown woman but still in touch with younger, more experimental versions of herself. Even the brand’s name has been rendered in a scratchy hand. Does this mean the Row will finally embrace its weirder, more interesting impulses? — Stella Bugbee
Other things worth knowing about:
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The fashion powers that be have anointed their chosen one: the Chongqing-born, New York-based designer Zane Li, who at just 25 has won a formidable trifecta of accolades. Earlier this year, Li was awarded both the Fashion Trust U.S. Ready-to-Wear Award and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH ceremony. And then on Tuesday, Li won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, a $300,000 prize. (Emily Dawn Long and Aisling Camps were the runners-up.) Now here comes the hard part: making an enduring business out of his hot-colored miniskirts and right-angled dresses.
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Madewell’s collaboration with the New York Public Library looks like it was ghost-designed by Brandy Melville.
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Thanks to Luke H., a reader who wrote in after our last newsletter to share that the current issue of the French fashion mag L’Etiquette shows so many T-skirts that the editors addressed the styling move: “We’re trying to stop, honest, but it’s just such a good trick.” We agree!
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Kartik Research, the New Delhi label that made Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration tie, will be the guest designer at January’s Pitti Uomo, a trade show that’s really just a meet-up for men who wear suits as a hobby.
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My editor, Marie Solis, caught “Pithoprakta,” the shockingly modern-feeling and eerie Balanchine piece at the New York City Ballet last weekend. She couldn’t stop thinking about the lead ballerina’s costume, so she emailed the designer, Holly Hynes, who told her a bit about how it came together. “The inspiration came from the final movement of the ballerina wiggling her hands over her head almost like bangs,” Hynes wrote. “I saw fringe.” I can see it, too. The tutu hangs down like the flaps of a carwash rather than sticking out in tulle.
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And for those who like the look, the indie label Michelle Del Rio sells a belt with a similar effect.
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In Tuesday’s newsletter, we called the Elizabeth Holmes doc “You Can See Anything” rather than “You Can See Everything.” We could not see the typo before we hit send, and we regret this error.
What we’re reading and watching:
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The trailer for the new Richard Avedon movie on its way to Netflix.
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Can’t remember ever being this invested in a jeans ad. (Starring a past Styles profile subject, Annie Hamilton.)
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Speaking of grabby Instagram teasers: Who doesn’t need a good cry?
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Guess the artist: “Over the years, he returned to kisses and birds and sublime heads lying on their sides, heavy with the imagined weight of sleep and dreams.”
Look of the Week
Boundless curls inspired our Style Outside photographer, Simbarashe Cha, as he roved the fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris. More hair inspo here.
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