Chopova Lowena

“Humor and glamour” are the two spirits of Chopova Lowena’s spring 2022 collection, per the designers. What a welcome idea in a season of re-emergence dressing that has hewed, surprisingly, to either the serious or the sexual. Watching the spring 2022 season unfold in New York and London so far, I’m wondering where the real new ideas are amidst the classic, breezy separates and slinky strappy little things. Must every collection have a sexy top or a lady dress? Is there no other way?

In their South London studio, Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena cut their own path with a wink and a bit of saucy flair. Their maniacally structured dresses are almost peerless in the market, and to wear them you have to be ready to attract attention of every kind. Chopova and Lowena are assuming their position as the patron saints of strangeness with a collection that fuses surfer girl staples with fashion signatures from Lowena’s Germanic heritage. Trachten bustiers inspire fitted bodices with cut-out neckline details that carry into the brand’s debut swimwear. Graphics are hand-drawn by Chopova and Lowena, sketchy smiling suns and happy fish blown up large on one-pieces, tees, and leggings.

While the pair are best known for their carabiner skirts—now in lighter materials for hotter climes—the Chopova Lowena universe is expanding. Their wide-leg trousers and button-up shirts and jackets are available in a larger range of sizes and in beautiful marbled and flocked prints for guys, girls, and everybody. A fluffy fil coupé blows up their silhouettes and bags into new eccentric shapes, while knit socks, pop-top crochet bras, and enamel animal earrings ensure every corner of the body is covered in a tiny, funny spark of joy.

For the first time, the designers have presented their collection in a video, directed by Charlotte Wales and shot in Essex’s Romford Skate Park. A classically British voiceover mimics the rigor of a traditional ’60s salon show with models vamping and camping it up on the ramps and in a ramshackle room in their Chopova Lowena finery.

Even as the Chopova Lowena world grows its reach to all genders and ages, the designers are wise to never shake their girlhood: that state of becoming when you are aware of everything, sensitive, strong, and fearless. As other brands cynically mine Y2K nostalgia, Chopova and Lowena are designing for a generation born from it: clothes for those who want to be silly-pretty, soft, emotional, and punkishly themselves.