excerpt: Natasha Zinko. Fall 2026 - London Fashion Week

 

"At times, I adore Natasha Zinko's fashion ethos, and her Eastern European backstory is as equally interesting, aligning with the Demna and Guram Gsvalia's 1990 East European romanticism of do-it-yourself styles, brand knock offs, underground raves aesthetics; be it that fit, in all its charm, that wasn't quite like a Western style fit.   And you also have to admire the presentation of Zinko's past collections, as a lesson in how scarcity, ala materials, forced one to be even more creative, and as she explained in her shows notes, prior to the runway presentation, growing up in 1990s Odessa, Ukraine, when it was under post-Soviet control, which inscribed the basis of her label, as "challenging", and "complicated" times.

As we know, without condensing what it would have been like growing up in an East European country in the 1980s and 1990s, yearning for a taste of Western indulgence, while crafting with what scarce materials you had on hand.  Maybe, now in the West (and everywhere else), we are getting that taste in reverse, as inflation is chewing into everything, and you live from paycheck to paycheck, going without every two weeks after the rent is paid, with no food, bills coming in and living off a credit card, just to survive.  Can new styles, unavertable, evolve out of this social strain?..." 

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Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2026/02/natasha-zinko-fall-2026-london-fashion.html

(A.Glass 2026)

Spring 2027 review soon.