Dress For Wedding | 日記 | A New Fashion Hub? Eastern Europe

A New Fashion Hub? Eastern Europe
In 2014, Magda Butrym, a young Warsaw-based stylist-turned-fashion designer, debuted a 35-piece collection of floral print dresses and blouses, finished with cutaway detailing and hints of leather and hand crochet.
“I had always wanted to launch a label that was distinctly and proudly Polish,” said the 32-year-old designer, who is largely self-taught. “I wanted to create clothes inspired by Polish craftsmanship, manufactured here in Poland, and to have my design studio here, too. But I also knew that was not going to be easy.”
She had worked in a number of small design businesses in Warsaw before starting the brand that bears her name. “There are no buyers here, there is no fashion week. No one is here to tell you how to do things, or where you need to get your foot in the door. I was taking a big risk.”Historically, Poland, and other Eastern European countries like Hungary and Romania, have never been considered high fashion destinations. Behind the scenes, however, close ties with the industry have existed for decades, with factories across the region quietly producing garments and accessories for Western European luxury houses from Louis Vuitton to Hugo Boss.Over the last decade, some of that business has moved elsewhere as companies hunt for cheaper labor and lower production costs, leaving many skilled workers without jobs. Now, a new generation of homegrown luxury entrepreneurs is building businesses that take advantage of that craftsmanship.In Hungary, the contemporary women’s wear brand Aeron was founded in 2012 by Eszter Aron, its head designer, and three friends, with Vivien Laszloffy joining the business as chief executive in 2015. The label’s philosophy, Ms. Laszloffy said, is to be a brand “that people will recognize and know is from Budapest, in the same way people look at Acne and know it’s from Sweden.”Continue reading the main story
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“People say it is against the odds to build a brand from here, rather than move to Paris or Milan, but actually we see it as an advantage,” she said. “Everyone has a vision in their minds of what a French or Italian brand looks like. But no one can imagine a brand from Budapest yet. And so we can seize that space and make it our own.”As a privately owned company, sales figures are not released. But the two women said sales doubled annually in each of the last three years, with the majority of growth coming from an unexpected region: Asia.After struggling to gain traction in the West, the pair looked eastward, where the brand’s minimalist aesthetic and techno-fabrics gained appreciation. More than 60 percent of its sales now come from the region: In Japan, Áeron is stocked in the major department store Isetan and in the fashion chain Tomorrowland, as well as in a string of boutiques across South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong.
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