One look at the queue for a Chopova Lowena sample sale feels a little like peeking inside a high school auditorium filled with an eccentric, yet effortlessly well-dressed congregation of cool girls and quirky kids.
You’ll see fans united by their love for London’s most punk rock brand on the block, lining up for a chance to nab one of Chopova Lowena’s highly coveted carabiner skirts. You wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking they were queuing up for a celebrity sighting.
But the passion of Chopova Lowena’s superfans is still no match for the enthusiasm that its co-founders, Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons, have. The two fangirl over their devoted customers with fervour. “If we see someone out there wearing [our brand], we will freak out,” Chopova says with a laugh on a recent stopover in Hong Kong, during the designers’ first-ever visit to Asia.
She is of course referring to the brand’s devoted Asian fan base – loyal followers who have been well documented by street style photographers from Shanghai to Tokyo.
It’s rare for a young, independent brand to come up with a viral hit right off the bat, but the carabiner skirt, Chopova Lowena’s hero product, achieved near-instant virality when e-commerce platform Matches DMed the designer duo to place an initial order of 30 skirts, which then instantly sold out. That was in 2018, a mere year after Chopova Lowena first launched.
The designers, who met on their first day at Central Saint Martins in 2011 while studying for their bachelor’s degrees, became fast friends, instantly drawn to each other’s riotous aesthetics. “Everyone’s outfits were black suits,” Chopova remembers. “I had made furry underwear with bells on it. And Laura made this crazy jumper that was just, like, mental.” Indulging in their divergent yet complementary ideas, the two found common ground in their passion for the extreme and penchant for thinking of everything – from their mood board imagery to runway inspirations – in twos.
The pair eventually went on to complete a joint master’s degree at the same school, deciding they would preserve their disparate interests, rather than trying to pigeon-hole themselves into a single, more coherent identity. “So we did our MA on rock climbing and Bulgarian folklore,” Chopova quips.
What might sound nonsensical in theory worked perfectly in practice. Chopova Lowena marries the two designers’ biggest interests and influences with ease, resulting in pieces you won’t be able to find elsewhere purely because of how outlandish the combinations may seem on paper. In their hands, girlish ruffles, lace and bow embellishments look like they’ve always belonged side by side with varsity jackets and military-style combat boots.