IVAN ZINKO
THE GEN Z
Jason Wu sewed his first dress (for a doll) when he was ten. So why shouldn’t Ivan Zinko launch his first capsule collection aged nine? Whether Zinko develops into as lauded a designer as his fellow early bloomer remains to be seen – he is still only 13. However he has had a head start: the label Zinko co-designs with his mother Natasha has 140 stockists and showed in London before moving across to the Paris menswear schedule. Last month Ivan’s label DUOltd’s first stand-alone retail space – a shop-in-shop at Harrods – opened in London.
“It all started with my mother,” said Ivan down an after-school Zoom. “We used to go to fashion weeks, and when I was nine I started to go with her to the workshop where she makes her clothes.”
This was also when Ivan sparked a minor street style sensation thanks to the looks in which he was photographed attending fashion shows. His Instagram, then handled @goldenfly, recently rechristened @soberivan, attracted 90,000 followers. “That was a surface-level thing,” shrugged Ivan of his days as a pre-teen influencer. “Now I’m interested in learning the art of fashion, not going to fashion week.”
The Zinkos live between London and Odessa, Ukraine. Natasha, formerly a lawyer, studied jewellery at Central Saint Martins, opened a boutique, then developed her own eponymous ready-to-wear label. Ivan has come along for the ride.
He said: “I like blurring the norms between menswear and womenswear. This is an interesting form of rebellion, doing what you feel rather than what society tells you to. Fashion represents rebellion because it allows you to show your spirit through clothes. One day I’d like DUOltd to evolve, to represent something more, maybe in art.”
Ivan cites Martin Margiela and Raf Simons as key inspirations. But what does he, as a Gen Z’er, reckon to Gen X’ers and even (gasp!) ancient boomers articulating youthful revolt in fashion? Ivan is chill: “I think youth probably lives in the spirit, rather than being older or being younger.”