Bulgaria-born designer Antonio Vattev stands at a crossroads in his career. Faced with the prospect of scaling up his label, AV Vattev, the London-based rising designer has chosen, instead, to stick to his guns. Now eight collections in, Vattev used his latest offering to cement the codes he’s been honing since 2020, when he first set up shop. Leaning into his knack for unconventional pattern-cutting, he has since forged a coherent vision of the AV Vattev man – one rooted in panelled outerwear, easy silhouettes and the type of fabrication that lasts a lifetime, not a season.
In his brand’s nascent days, he wanted to introduce a new trope each season. ‘But that doesn't work for a new brand because it makes it difficult for customers, buyers and press to recognise the brand,’ says Vattev, pragmatically. Newly enrolled into the Sarabande Foundation – an east London studio-space-cum-initiative supporting creatives short on capital but big on ideas, founded by Lee Alexander McQueen – Vattev has gained serious traction, garnering press and famous devotees, from Headie One to A$AP Rocky. Despite this success and the temptations that follow, he’s staunch in his commitment to slow fashion, using at least 70 per cent (often more) deadstock fabrics and turning down stockists if it means compromising on any of these tenets.
