On September 9, the Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) store in the heart of the Meatpacking District is closed. “The boutique will be closed in preparation for our Spring/Summer 2027 runway show,” a sign taped to the door reads.
Upstairs, newly minted DVF artistic director Henry Zankov is busy prepping. But today, he’s not focused on the DVF show, preparations for which are near complete. Instead, he’s in the midst of previews for his eponymous label, Zankov. He moved operations into the DVF HQ for ease when he took on the role of artistic director earlier this year, and so the office is split in two: DVF on the right, Zankov on the left.
As we chat while looking at the Zankov boards, the designer runs across to the DVF side of the floor (it’s not far) to look at a model walk back and forth in a sheer yellow, pink and purple chiffon gown with the team. The DVF show is the next day, but everything is in hand, Zankov says, allowing him to shift focus. Satisfied, he strolls back over. “I go from one desk to another on a daily basis,” he laughs.
“This is crazy, this is three different kinds of sequins, but to me it feels so effortless,” Zankov says.
The back and forth has crystallized Zankov’s vision for his own brand, which he founded in 2020. To start, he focused on colorful knitwear (the embrace of color, in part, inspired by his time working at DVF under Jonathan Saunders), but in recent seasons, he’s expanded into fuller wardrobing, from chiffon eveningwear to embellished shirting. Zankov is part of New York’s new guard, and came up under designers like Christopher John Rogers, and alongside the likes of Diotima’s Rachel Scott (with whom he’s co-hosted sample sales in the past). The Zankov aesthetic stood out from the brand’s early days against New York fashion’s more muted palette for its bright stripes and zany prints. Prices sit in the mid-hundreds for sweaters, and in the thousands for dresses and skirts.
“Working on [DVF] made me realize how wacky this needs to be,” Zankov says, nodding to the left side of the office, where racks of brightly colored SS27 Zankov are sitting. Fittings will kick off the next day. “As I’m working on it, I realize even more so how different the brands are.”
While we’re talking, an employee comes by with a pot of ginger tea, which she pours on a table with a platter of croissants, bowls of pins and some static guard (of course), before heading back up to Diane von Furstenberg’s office, where the founder is working. (She usually resides in Venice these days, but is in town for the show.)
