With all of Chopova Lowena’s helter-skelter energy and madcap combinations of color and print, it’s easy to miss how meticulous and finely balanced their unlikely combinations of sartorial codes actually are. Just take their inspirations this season, which began with the bomber jackets and pinafores of early 20th-century female pilots and parachutists—more specifically, Tiny Broadwick, the first woman to jump from an airplane and the inventor of ripcords—then moved into the mini dresses and cardis and eye-popping neons that defined the rise of the acid house party scene in ’80s Britain. (Just call it “rave-iation,” a term designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena helpfully coined in their collection notes.)
It’s near-impossible to think of another brand that could feasibly take a 1940s-inspired nightgown pattern and fuse it with a rave-ready slip dress. And then add puffball skirts crafted from layers of lace that came together to form an effect similar to that of spray paint. And then keep it all within the realm of good taste.
You might imagine their process of pairing these themes involves spinning two giant carnival wheels—one with outdoor activities, the other with some kind of folkloric tradition—and seeing which combination they land on. And it is a little bit like that, Lowena explained at a preview: “A lot of it starts by matching up pictures and finding those relationships—whether it’s the clothes, or people who look alike, or two people who look like they could be a couple.” But the real slog is finding the material in the first place, which typically involves everything from rifling through old books about folklore they’ve bought on eBay to trawling forums and message boards online. “We spend a lot of our time down internet rabbit holes,” admitted Lowena, noting that Facebook groups are a particularly useful wellspring of inspiration. “You have these super niche communities, and people uploading photos of their village festival or their cycling club in 1965 or their archives of historical badges. We’re big advocates for internet research.”
Equally impressive is their ability to transform all of this into hotly desirable (and strangely wearable) clothes. Between the more outré, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink looks—bodices slathered with candy beads and badges, paneled puffer jackets studded with silver baubles, the faux fur trims on hoodies and wide-leg jeans—there were plenty of clever new riffs on their classics, from the pleated skirts with perforated leather belts to the pieces with crochet or hot fix butterfly motifs.
