Natasha Zinko’s life has been a series of taking what she has and transmuting it into something unrecognisable. It’s a philosophy that not only defines her identity as a person, but as a creative. She doesn’t believe in fashion as something sterile. She believes that fashion is in inevitable, constant motion. Garments are meant to be borrowed, altered, passed on, inherited, customised. All of it. She’s been DIY’ing since day one. Finding ways to wear her clothes differently, cutting them up until they become something entirely novel and match her growing persona.
In her latest collection, Family Bizness, the London-based designer prompts a deep remembrance and an informed reflection. Her experiences growing up in Ukraine in the 90s and selling clothing with her mother and father at busy street markets come to the forefront in a collection so grounded in intergenerationality. Clothes, like humans, live multiple lives in one lifetime and carry with them an emotional residue that deserves to be emphasised.
The first “zinko-made jeans” were actually DIYs you sold with your parents at street markets in post-Soviet Odesa. How did Ukrainians want to look and dress at the time, and how did that influence you?
I always had a personal sense of style. We had Western magazines and MTV, which were very rare. I looked at them to see what was going on in the world of fashion and inspiration. We had limited access back then. We were, I am, still am very cunning and creative.
You grew up on the verge of a new millennium, an era of transition — socially, economically, and aesthetically. How did this shape your design language?
It instilled in me the ferocity to go after my dreams even when doors are closed or shut in my face, which still happens today. Each new collection instils more strength inside me as a designer, as a person, as a business.
This collection, Family Bizness, feels especially personal given that you began working with your son, Ivan, when he was in elementary school. How has growing up inside the brand framed your relationship with each other and with the concept of fashion being something that is generational?
Everything I learned was passed on to me from my mother and father. Ivan has been writing my press releases for the past four years and doing the music for the past two shows. I didn’t push him to get involved in my business. He wants to be involved. But in his own way.
“It instilled in me the ferocity to go after my dreams even when doors are closed or shut in my face.”
The collection plays into the idea of borrowing garments from relatives, how intimate and eclectic that experience can be. What is your earliest memory of borrowing clothes from your loved ones?
I remember being passed down a fur coat that had belonged to my grandmother, then my mother. Each time it changed slightly to reflect each of us personally. Reshaping and changing the length.
Is there a moment you lent your own clothing to another that is particularly memorable?
I’m not sure about loaning my clothes. I treasure my wardrobe. I collect clothes, both mine and other collections. I prefer shopping in the men’s department and reinterpreting while adding a feminine touch. I love seeing clients randomly on the street wearing my designs and how they reinterpret them in their own personal style. It inspires me.
Why did you choose to have a rabbit head as the epaulet motif on the fur coat? And what does it mean to double down on the concept of “wearing” an animal: first as fur, then as a sculptural symbol?
The bunny has been present in every one of my collections now. It is my icon. Showing the head of an animal epaulet makes people think about the whole truth.
Upcycling and repurposing are at your core as a designer. So much so that there was a trend a few years ago where girls were recreating your Bandana Knot Detail Dress with bandanas they had at home. How do those moments of collective reinterpretation make their way back into your creative process?
First of all, I was so surprised and excited when I suddenly saw Cardi B wearing my corseted Bandana dress on Instagram. I was even more bewildered to see how many people started creating their own handmade versions of the dress. Long before upcycling and sustainability became a fashion thing, I grew up with this sensibility, except we didn’t call it upcycling and repurposing. I have always saved things because you never know when that exact fabric or box or item might be the perfect thing you need five years from now. I constantly upcycle deadstock fabrics in every collection.
“When Hailey Bieber appeared on a Vogue video saying her favourite jeans in the world were Natasha Zinko, I almost fell off my feet.”
Cardi B in that bandana dress was a moment, and your designs have a long track record of being a part of viral pop culture moments with celebrities. Why do you think that is?
It’s been organic, and I am very grateful for all the VIPs who have purchased and worn my collections. Seeing Travis Scott wearing my padded check jacket, which he purchased at Maxfield in LA was extraordinary. When Hailey Bieber appeared on a Vogue video saying her favourite jeans in the world were Natasha Zinko, I almost fell off my feet. I am very lucky that so many VIPs buy my designs. It shows they really love what I do.
FW26 is all about layering. What does layering allow you to express?
It allows one to take off or add on as they like. Especially day to night. Living from sunny to chilly all in one day. Going from work to dinner to a club. Fifty years ago, people changed their outfits three to five times a day. Now we start in the morning and need to always be ready for an unexpected night out.
Aside from clothing, what else do you DIY in life?
My matcha. I opened Natashkino Ltd in my shop seven years ago. Back then, it was impossible to find good matcha in London like you do in Tokyo, LA, and NYC. I was making it at home all the time. I figured others would want good matcha, just like me. Now all you find is awful corporate matcha at so many chain coffee shops. It takes more than just hot water and matcha. There is a craft to it, just like my designs. And I love creating jewellery. It’s my real passion.
