Where can I buy Polish clothes?
“Where can I buy Polish clothes?” asked my cousins from London, who, prior to Coronavirus, were visiting Warsaw for a few days. In England they had heard about great Polish sweatshirts. Where should I recommend?
Warsaw, likewise most European cities is, at first sight, dominated by chain retailers such as H&M, Zara, C&A, Calzedonia, Benetton and Nike. Meanwhile the luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta reside in an impressive black edifice on Aleje Jerozolimskie.
We don’t mean these brands though. If you want to pass by all the widely recognised brands and find something Polish, you don’t need to look far. Just around the corner, there’s Reserved, the largest Polish retailer which is now familiar in the UK, with a branch on London’s Oxford Street. On streets like Mokotowska and Mysia and in the Mokotow shopping mall you’ll find Polish clothes, jewellery, lingerie and shoes. Polish fashion is bravely facing up against the giants and the country’s people want to support their own products and industry.
Following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the communist order tumbled in Poland and so did its economy. In the 1990s western shops were still absent from the Polish high streets, the word “chain” was not known and brands such as Dior or Chanel were purely to dream about.
However, nature abhors a vacuum – people needed to dress so the new grew rapidly on the ruins of the old. Overcoming the difficulties, we entered new times with enthusiasm and aspirations to catch up with the old Europe. Those who witnessed Poland back in those days will never forget exotic sight of the streets, with everyone outdoors trading from the boots of their cars. At these carboot sales you could buy everything from a bike, to a table, to some beetroot, to a pair of tights.
car boot sale in Warsaw, 09.1990 Stadion Dziesięciolecia PAP / Teodor Walczak
Shops were in the early phase of reshaping from state-owned to privately run enterprises. Nobody knew what the future held. At that time you could easily find a cashmere blazer in a grocery store and a new pair of shoes at the stationery shop.
While Made in China still dominated, there were some exceptions, including the iconic Młoda Polska - the biggest Polish state-owned fashion house - and a handful of other growing brands. And while that was the reality then, things can change fast and soon enough more and more Polish firms joined the retail offensive.
In 1993 Lidia Kalita, an engineer, and her sister, Lodz Academy of Arts graduate Maja Palma, opened a shop on Mokotowska street. They made simple, knitted jumpers and dresses in base colours - black, grey and navy. Manufactured in the Cottex factory in Plock, the items quickly became bestsellers. For opening events, security guards had to be in place to prevent ladies from fighting over items.
Joanna Klimas, Ewa Jagielska, Teresa Seda, Joanna Chrzanowska, Aleksandra Stangierska, Halina Zawadzka, Joanna Kędziorek - these are just a few of the designers who started off in early the nineties. Not everyone managed to survive amid competition from large foreign brands, but some managed to resist the onrush of chains and clothes from China.
Halina Zawadzka, transformed small company Hexeline, based in Lodz, into a large player with a boutique in Mokotow Mall.
With Twoj Styl, Elle, Pani and other new generation magazines supporting the development of Polish fashion, a new profession of a stylist was born, with new clothes, new models and colourful pictures in magazines. Their first shows, were a little amateurish and not always successful.
nr 2537 (06/1994) Przekrój magazine online archive
Today, 30 years later, Polish fashion has caught up and matured. Designers Magda Butrym and Zosia Chylak sell their products on luxurious online retailer net-a-porter. We have brands which don’t aspire to foreign luxuries, instead dressing Polish girls for every day at decent prices.
Klara Kowtun and Antonina Samecka set up Risk in Warsaw. It was certainly risky, but they made it. Their statement piece is a “risky” dress – envelope dress with belt and wide bottom line. It’s made in Poland with natural Polish and European fabrics. “We do practical fashion, that has to look good on and not just hanging” say the owners. They know textile suppliers, choosing only those who care about production standards and employee welfare.
Romantic dresses, delicate details, excellent handcraft are all Polish hallmarks, as well as modern “break, shatter, rawness, nonchalance and a note of perversion” according to Gosia Baczynska, our very own ‘couture’ designer. Her creations are worn by celebrities - Olga Tokarczuk took her dress to the Noble Prize award ceremony in Stockholm 2019.
Backstage of the SS15 campaign, Bohoboco press material
Minimal aesthetic was thrown into the Polish fashion yard by Bohoboco (Kamil Owczarek and Michal Gilbert Lach), whose designs were a response to our tendency to over-dress. It resulted in ingenious cuts and easy to wear, well crafted pieces. Bohoboco also has a fragrance line which is to die for. Robert Kupisz is a restless spirit of Polish streetwear fashion who has created a brand for Polish thirtysomethings. He designs sweatshirts, T-shirts, jackets, trousers and leather apparel which are all popular with younger buyers. Movement, rock and change are all his elements and he finds inspiration in music. In 2014 his patriotic themed collection which referred to the Warsaw Uprising became a big hit.
I tell my cousins they should go to Mysia street. It is where young Polish fashion’s heart beats, with workshops, stores and handmade jewellery from Anna Orska. There’s also soft T-shirts from Bynamesake, Svoi – a Polish brand who sell apparel, footwear and accessories, as well as Rilke – a young lingerie brand.
If you are after delicate, comfortable shoes you cannot skip Balagan - a business set up by two girls from Tel Aviv and Warsaw. These unpretentious, well crafted shoes will be comfortable even for the most sneaker-spoiled feet.
Menswear in Poland, similarly to elsewhere, is a constant battleground . Who is on top? The suit and ties from glassy offices or the IT experts from Silicon Valley - the followers of casual denim? Millennials and younger are focused on another option: fleece, tracksuits and t- shirts. Hip-Hop fashion is fairly popular and Prosto brand is a great example of its success. Prosto, a collaboration involving rapper Sokol, blends hip hop fashion with quality fabrics. The clothes are made by Vistula, which, like Bytom, is a well known Polish manufacturer of high-end menswear.
Prosto & Vistula collection, Vistula.pl
Polish Saville Row is represented by small tailoring shops; they are no longer run by elderly men hunched over sewing tables, but instead elegant bespoke lines from Buczyński and Zaremba form a Polish response to British and Italian men’s tailoring. They use Italian wools and bespoke cuts, whether a loose English cut or a Neapolitan style with wide lapels. And while the styles are very similar to London, unfortunately so are the prices.