Clothing ‘engineer’ Konstanty Mvrzynski on his mission to build innovation in the world of fashion

“Me having the worst luck, our fashion show was on the day when there were train strikes. So we had to sort of cut it short. I said to the guys ‘Sorry, but I really have to go because I don’t want to have to stay in London overnight’.

“The next day I see The Guardian releasing an article about all the best collections from that year with my black-and-white coat and my black dress being the cover photo.”

Konstanty Mvrzynski, or Kaz, had won the prestigious Best Collection award at the Graduate Fashion Week 2022 for his Haute Couture Collection ‘Invictus’ catwalk at Coal Drops Yard in London.

With some 20 universities entering, and hundreds of collections being presented, for Kaz’s work during his time at UCA Rochester to win is a huge feather in the cap. But, in the fashion industry nothing is ever straightforward.

“I was thinking that it might help me find a job in this industry, but I’m telling you, I was looking for work for six months after graduating and I couldn’t find anything.

“After the New Year, I thought there’s no point sitting around doing nothing, hoping to get the response back from an employer. I might as well open my own business but make the business not so reliant on footfall that we need to constantly be worried about the money for it. Let’s make it a community thing, making my studio, and making it an art gallery, which is what I always wanted to do.”

“… clothes should also be innovative, as genius as engineers building structures”

— Konstanty Mvrzynski

In the heart of the Old High Street Intra between Rochester and Chatham, the Konstanty Mvrzynski Atelier & Gallery (@konstantymvrzynski) opened in April, adding to the buzz of a creative area that has seen some truly successful independent businesses blossom.

Working with local organisations, the atelier has taken part in Medway’s Open Studios and Medway Pride and is also inviting local artists to display and collaborate in its space, including mixed-media duo Hopeless Dolls, painter Dean Melbourne and renowned drag artists River Medway (pictured) and Paris Grande.

“We have had some really fantastic collaborations with different creatives, photographers and printmakers,” says Kaz. “I’m trying to get myself involved in as many things locally as possible. This is an open space, not just for making highly engineered couture clothes but also a space for contemporary art and modern art.”

Images by Corinne Cumming - Photographer

COUTURE CONSTRUCTION

From a Polish-Ukrainian background, Kaz grew up in Oxford before moving to study in Kent, opting for the fashion atelier course at UCA in Rochester over Central St. Martin’s and London College of Fashion, where he was also offered places.

“I went to actually see the campuses and talked to some of the students there about the course and I realised that’s not what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “I would much rather do a very intense overall course where I can not only learn pattern-cutting but also draping, how to pad and how to make tailored clothes.

“The degree at UCA provided me with all these skills, but they teach you just the very basics and then you have to go off and experiment and come up with your own things.”

Kaz has been into the creation of garments from an early age but, rather than the decorative side of things, he has a passion for the mechanical and methodical processes of garment development and pushing the innovative boundaries of what can be achieved.

“Oh, yeah, I always wanted to be an engineer or an architect,” says Kaz. “From a young age I was into building structures, things that are quite mechanical, with things that move, shift and adapt in a certain way. And I have tried working with different materials. So obviously I’ve tried illustration, I suck at painting, and sculpture, ceramics in all sorts of different things. And then I quite liked the idea of fashion but the more technical side of it.”

During his recent Open Studios sessions, Kaz showed members of the public how to use geometry in the cut of clothes and the history of it. And that ‘engineering approach’ also plays into why Kaz chooses black-and-white garments.

“The reason we work in black and white is because they’re the most timeless, harmonious colours. But also this whole practice is all about engineering shape, engineering volume, working in a very certain way where the eye is drawn to the shape more than anything else, hence black. We don’t ever work with, let’s say, sparkly things or embroidery or decorative elements, simply because the cut and the construction of it is the first and foremost thing in this practice. Referring to English-American couturier Charles James, who passed away in the 70s, Kaz is inspired to innovate within the fashion world.

“He was basically like the Albert Einstein of fashion. He worked in a very unorthodox way, building his own mannequins, and every single garment he created was just genius - the shape, volume, movement and balance.

“The last few years in the fashion business, it’s all about decorative aspects, you know, simple clothes, over-dominated with embroidery and whatever. And I really didn’t like that - I thought clothes should also be innovative, as genius as engineers building structures. So I like to think about this practice almost as if Zaha Hadid was a fashion designer.”

The designer, who also works evenings at nearby Poco Loco to keep the money coming in, is tutoring two interns at his studio.

“You can’t really learn it anywhere. There are no guidebooks that teach you how to do these things,” he says. “The way we work is very unorthodox – you’ve got to get somebody to actually teach it. So when these guys came to me and asked ‘Can we get an internship?’, I was, like, ‘Yep, bring it on’. And while the commissions for work are starting to roll in, there’s no let-up on Kaz’s desire to push ahead.

“I don’t want to have to owe anything to anyone. I want to be fully independent,” he says. “I don’t want to have to take out loans or search for investment in return for capital, if you like, in that I wanted to do this whole thing all by myself.”

The pull away from fast and unsustainable fashion is as much about education as it is just buying green-certified clothing as a consumer.

“The goal is to show people how these clothes are really made,” says Kaz. “Lots of people just think there’s three types of sleeve, three types of collar, it’s all made in China and then we just buy it in Primark and wear it. Whereas the reality is very different. You could say it’s the academic aspect of it, but it’s not just for fashion students, it’s for people in general to not think that everything you wear has to come from TK Maxx or wherever. Things can be beautifully made for you.”