For this Thursday’s episode of The Run-Through, Nicole Phelps sat down with Henry Zankov, the new artistic director of Diane von Furstenberg, just days before his back-to-back shows for DVF and his own label, Zankov.
Zankov’s relationship with DVF goes back to 2014, when he joined the brand as a knitwear designer. He spent about four years there before striking out on his own, eventually returning to consult on knitwear as the company brought more of its design work in-house.
Working alongside Diane von Furstenberg herself has been a formative experience, Zankov said, crediting her with helping him to embrace color—a signature of both DVF and his own label. As for whether an actual wrap dress will appear in his debut, Zankov was coy: “There might be a wrap-dress surprise. We’ll see.” What he did confirm was that a broader theme of “wrapping the body” would run through the collection, a direct nod to the iconic dress that DVF introduced 50 years ago.
Recently named one of Vogue’s “new kings of color,” Zankov described color as something closer to a language than a design tool—something tied to memory, sound, even music. He’s been looking at 1960s Brazilian architecture and listening to a lot of bossa nova, PJ Harvey, and jazz lately, all of which are filtering into his palette. His favorite color at the moment is a pistachio green that he seemed to find everywhere during a six-month stint in Milan.
Zankov’s path to fashion started early. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he emigrated with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey, at age nine, arriving without speaking English and learning about American culture mostly through MTV. A chance sighting of Donna Karan at Port Authority as a teenager, not long after he’d fallen for her label via Fashion Television, stuck with him; he later interned at DKNY, designing men’s shirts before eventually moving into knitwear—the same specialty that would define his career.
Beyond the shows, Zankov has his eye on a fragrance collaboration down the line, and he’s open to designing menswear eventually, though he’s not rushing it. His past collaborators include Selima Salaun of Selima Optique and musician Troye Sivan, who became a fan after buying one of Zankov’s blankets during the pandemic.
As for how he’ll be celebrating once both shows wrap? Not much rest is in sight. Zankov is getting married in early October, and the days after his shows will likely turn to wedding prep.
