Henry Zankov is a technician as much as he is a designer. A self-professed ‘knitwear geek’, Zankov’s namesake label works only in yarn, but what he does with it is unlike anything you’ve seen before – from searing colour to unexpected silhouettes and a pile-up of textures. ‘I very much try to avoid a traditional sense of what knitwear is,’ Zankov says over a call from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York. ‘We’ll probably never do a fisherman or cable-knit sweater, or if we do it will be in our own way, because for me, it's really about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the stitch and the technique.’
Russia-born, New York-raised Zankov launched his brand in 2019 after years of working for brands like Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg. The first capsule comprised six sweaters with a more developed collection debuting at New York Fashion Week a few months later. When Covid hit, it could have been the undoing of the burgeoning brand, but the young designer buckled down, transforming his sweaters into pillows and blankets that appealed to an audience stuck at home. Now, five years later, Zankov is a cult favourite with fashion insiders, particularly in his hometown, where this Monday (9 September 2024) a crowd gathered at The Reserve Padel courts near the High Line on the city’s west side to watch his presentation as part of New York Fashion Week S/S 2025.
Henry Zankov’s non-conformist knits
Titled ‘You Found Me’, the new collection is inspired by the music Zankov listened to in high school and college: post-punk and alt-rock bands like Sonic Youth and The Breeders. ‘For me, [that time] was defined by rebelliousness,’ he says. ‘I was rejecting norms, and this collection was about trying to go back there through my own visual language.’
As such, the collection features plenty of motifs that have become Zankov signatures, including zig-zag intarsia, bouclé needle ribs and combinations of thick and thin stripes in exuberant and offbeat colours. But the designer also introduced new techniques and materials this season, including a wool developed alongside a mill in Italy, which has a small amount of metal woven into the thread, giving it a luminous sheen and a slightly wrinkled texture. The resulting fabric has been used in this collection to create boxy shorts, button-up tops, sarongs and floor-length dresses that capture the easygoing, irreverent attitude of Zankov’s grunge idols. This collection also marks the first time the brand has used crochet, notably for hot pink sweaters that are decorated with shimmering green paillettes. The mood through it all is high-spirited, rebellious and, as always with Zankov, playful.
It is for that reason that this collection is ‘especially made for someone to take the pieces and mix them the way they want to,’ the designer says. ‘It’s designed to be a no-brainer – for instance, you can put on a jacquard pant with a crochet tank, or a metallic polo shirt with a geometric pencil skirt. It's just about letting the audience take it however they want to take it. There's a playful aspect to the collection, but it never feels matchy.’
For Zankov, the collection is way of celebrating the community and energy he rediscovered in New York after two years of living away from it. ‘Coming back has been so exciting for me because I’ve fallen in love with the city again,’ he says. ‘I feel like New York is a very exciting place to be right now. Especially since the pandemic, so much has changed and and I think there's something a bit more subversive about the city again – it feels good to be home.’
Zankov is available from Bergdorf Goodman, alongside other international retailers.
