The Designers Giving New Life to Forgotten Bulgarian Fabrics

In a South London industrial park, an overstuffed garment bag spills onto the floor of the light-filled studio of the fashion designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena. Its tartan contents are samples from their Chopova Lowena fashion line, just returned from a photo shoot, explains Chopova, as she swoops down and plucks a mini-kilt from the bag.

“We bonded over a love of skirts,” Chopova says, recalling how she met Lowena on the very first day of their bachelor’s course in fashion at Central Saint Martins in 2011. The piece in her hand is a segmented collage of forest green and hot pink fabrics, embellished with floral embroidery and finished with heavy buckles and metal rock-climbing carabiners that loop through the fabric to harness the skirt to its chunky leather waistband. Kilts like this one — made from a medley of vintage Bulgarian fabrics and leftover plaid, with sporty elements and a punkish insouciance — have become a signature for the brand since the duo founded it in 2017.

After only three collections, Chopova Lowena is carried by stores from the multibrand boutique Browns in London to the women’s wear store H. Lorenzo in Los Angeles. With silhouettes ranging from asymmetric knife-pleat midis to schoolgirl minis in multicolored checks, the designers’ skirts draw inspiration from those worn by women in Bulgaria’s agricultural countryside, close to where Chopova was born. Using traditional Bulgarian dress as a starting point, the designers then add other referential layers into the mix — from classic Victoriana to sporty spandex — to create a thematic tension that defines Chopova Lowena’s off-kilter avant-garde pieces: Dresses, newly introduced for spring 2019, are a mash-up of Victorian sleeves and collars and Bulgarian farming skirts.

Source: The New York Times

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