Model Lily McMenamy fronts Chopova Lowena’s Spring Summer 2020 campaign, styled b Agata Belcen. Fashion photographer Charlotte Wales is behind the lens with art direction from Jamie Reid, and set design by Georgina Pragnell. / Hair by Kiyoko Odo; makeup by Anne Sophie Costa

The campaign comes as Choopova Lowena is names as a 2020 LVMH prize finalist. “This year, once more, the semi-finalists impressed us with their creativity and their commitment to creating clothes that are respectful of the environment,” Delphine Arnault, Executive Vice President of Louis Vuitton and the founder of the Prize, said in a press release. “The eight finalists all have in common to be very talented in their respective fields and to aspire to enhance know-how.”

The fashion designer Laura Lowena (left) with her two-year-old Boston terrier, Ida, and her business partner Emma Chopova in their studio in South Bermondsey, London. The designers wear kilts and jewelry from their fall 2019 Chopova Lowena collection.Credit...Jamie Stoker via New York Times

T Magazine featured then two-year-old fashion brand Chopova Lowena in August, 2019, with Grace Cook on interview duty. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena transform” dead-stock textiles” into intricately handcrafted skirts and dresses.

“We bonded over a love of skirts,” Chopova says, recalling how she met Lowena on the very first day of their bachelor’s course in fashion at Central Saint Martins in 2011. The piece in her hand is a segmented collage of forest green and hot pink fabrics, embellished with floral embroidery and finished with heavy buckles and metal rock-climbing carabiners that loop through the fabric to harness the skirt to its chunky leather waistband. Kilts like this one — made from a medley of vintage Bulgarian fabrics and leftover plaid, with sporty elements and a punkish insouciance — have become a signature for the brand since the duo founded it in 2017.

Chopova, 27, and Lowena, 28, began collaborating when they applied together for a joint master’s course at Saint Martins in 2015. “Laura loved old English children’s wear, and I was obsessed with Eastern European dress,” Chopova explained.

Luxury e-tailer Matchesfashion.com discovered the brand’s skirts on Instagram and placed an order for 30 pieces. “Suddenly, we had to figure out how and where to make these skirts for retail,” Lowena says. The skirts sold out in one day and generated a reorder for 25 more. The partners didn’t describe themselves as frantic, but clearly a bit of madness had entered their lives. With no factory contacts, Chopova and Lowena were sewing every piece in-house.

One problem that the women anticipated wasn’t a problem at all.

. . . part of Chopova Lowena’s appeal lies in the fact that each piece is handcrafted using mostly overstock, dead stock and repurposed irregular fabrics, and therefore one of a kind. “None of us knew how the customer would react to not getting the exact garment in the picture online, but it’s become a benefit rather than a negative,” Chopova says. “They know that they are getting something really special.” The brand exclusively uses existing fabrics, many sourced from all over Bulgaria — Chopova has a local team that scours the country for vintage skirts and dead-stock textiles, sending images to her via the social media app Viber.

Today the garments are handcrfafted in Bugaria and England, resulting in a lower carbon footprint while promoting artisanal, small-scale manufacturing.

The entire T Magazine article is wonderful in creating an inside view of two young creatives launching a significant success. Fluff it’s not, so take a read. AnOther Magazine also has a 2020 piece on the brand and this campaign: Five People on Why They Love Chopova Lowena’s Offbeat Creations