Paolo Carzana’s studio is just a tiny room above Smithfield Market, London’s main meat market, on the edge of the city’s financial district. Commuter trains rumble in and out of the tunnel underneath the space, which is crammed with clothes. Since starting his brand in 2022, the 30-year-old Welsh designer has made every garment himself here by hand, using intuitive and time-consuming draping techniques. “Each piece is like a life,” says Carzana, whose nails are bitten to the quick. He uses deadstock, organic, and antique fabrics that he dyes with natural ingredients. “I work with logwood, madder, turmeric, red onion skins, avocado stones.… A lot of the time, I’ll mix ingredients. Or I’ll work on a layer, then layer on top, then layer on top.”
So far, Carzana has shown six collections, all with poetic titles like “My Heart Is a River for You to Bend” and “Dragons Unwinged at the Butchers Block.” His last three collections formed the “Trilogy of Hope,” a series “about overcoming, but also being at peace with, darkness—the idea that no matter how far you climb and the obstacles you overcome, you can still be hit and fall to the bottom again.” The first of the shows, fall/winter 2024, was set in heaven; the second was in hell. The trilogy ended in purgatory, in a liminal torment inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings. Knotted dresses looked like they were barely held together.
Carzana’s craft-centric approach runs counter to that of most of his peers—and yet he is one of London’s most feted young talents. On the back of his studio door is a note from Sarah Burton, the new creative director of Givenchy. He was a finalist for the LVMH Prize in 2024; has spent time at Sarabande, a foundation set up by Lee Alexander McQueen to support young talent; and is now the designer in residence at studios run by Paul Smith’s foundation.
Born and raised in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, Carzana took to fashion in high school. He stayed behind in art class during lunch breaks, and his teachers showed him books on McQueen and Gianni Versace. He moved to London to study fashion at the University of Westminster, interned with Walter Van Beirendonck in Antwerp, then went on to a master’s program at Central Saint Martins. One of his tutors was Nasir Mazhar, the founder of the radical London pop-up store Fantastic Toiles and a hero of the city’s fashion counterculture. Mazhar became his mentor. “He encourages me to push myself,” says Carzana. He “pulls out my creativity and constantly questions everything.” Since Carzana started showing, Mazhar has become his collaborator too, contributing ethereal millinery to Carzana’s collections.
For Carzana, the human form is crucial to his design process. His clothes are often cut on the bias, with “individual pieces put onto a body and sculpted around the model.” There is no fusing, no shoulder construction, no internal scaffolding. The results are sinuous and lyrical, and make it so “skin is revealed in not such a traditional way.” A woman’s dress might be draped so the décolletage wanders down to the navel; the swirl of a toga-like men’s top might leave one side of the chest totally exposed. »
Carzana finds many of his materials at the vintage traders on Portobello Road, in West London. Hand-drawn motifs, like the stenciled large polka dots that appear in his most recent collection, are his newest obsession. But his work grows out of experimentation, not an effort to establish long-term signatures: “I’m actively pushing against honing in. I’m trying to develop and grow and change.”
Earlier this year, Carzana graduated from the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN program, an initiative that has supported designers such as McQueen, Jonathan Anderson, and Simone Rocha. Right now, he has no additional financial backing, so his business is hand to mouth. He has two international stockists—Dover Street Market in Paris and in Tokyo—and sells through Fantastic Toiles and his own website. “Everything feels purposeful and meaningful, but also I’m aware that I have no money,” he says. Yet Carzana remains clear-eyed about his brand’s mission: “I’m trying to achieve something totally away from an attempt to be cool, or look cool—it’s the complete opposite of having a viral thing.”
Hair by Issac Poleon at The Wall Group; makeup by Bea Sweet at The Wall Group; manicure by Pebbles Aikens for Penhaligons at The Wall Group. Models: Tia Edney at IMG London, Aluel Makuach at Elite London, Julia Rambukkana at Milk; Casting by Ashley Brokaw Casting; Set Design by Nana-Yaw Mensah; Produced by Angels Production; Producer: Barbara Eyt-Dessus; Photo Assistants: Lucas Bullens, George Hutton; Digital Technician: Emre Cakir; Retouching: Touch Digital; Fashion Assistant: Kitty Lyell; Production Assistants: Ryan James, Maytee Sangsawang; Hair Assistant: Ana Torres; Makeup Assistant: Vivi Melo; Set Assistants: Ella Kenyon, Jemima Maidment.
Source: W Magazine
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