Polish Fashion Stories

09/08/2025

💭Bobbin lace - refined and intricate - has long been regarded as the queen of lace. Created by braiding and twisting threads wound onto bobbins, it requires not only precision but a quiet, almost musical sense of rhythm.

📍Though most often linked with the historic lace centres of Belgium, Italy, or Spain, this craft also found a quiet, enduring home in Poland.

💌This story celebrates two artisans - Magdalena Cięciwa and Małgorzata Szpila. Their approaches could not be more different, yet their purpose is the same: to keep the bobbins turning and the tradition alive - continuing the thread between then and now.

Magdalena Cięciwa remains faithful to tradition, reviving the charm of the Zakopane school of bobbin lace. Meanwhile, Małgorzata Szpila hails from Bobowa but threads new futures for the craft abroad, exploring its form, function, and contemporary dimension.

🔗 https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/8/bobbin-lace-from-poland

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04/08/2025

💭Craft is having a moment - so how does it evolve from tradition into the future?

💌These Polish creatives are rewriting its language. From experimental hand-woven textiles and glass jewellery to futuristic latex lace, they draw on heritage techniques to craft bold, playful forms - rooted in tradition, driven by curiosity.

https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/new-forms-old-roots-craft-reimagined

🖊️Words by

28/07/2025

Ancestral techniques, family histories, and cultural symbols fuel a forward-looking vision at RAD - the design duo of Juliusz Rusin and Maciej Jóźwicki.
💭“Craftsmanship is something we absolutely glorify,” says Juliusz. “We try to integrate as much of it as possible, and to learn as much as we can. We don’t want to be just designers. We want to be great craftspeople too.”

💌In this piece, we explore their creative process, inspirations, and what it means to honour heritage - without getting stuck in nostalgia.

https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/7/rad-duet-a-forward-looking-ode-to-craft

15/05/2025

Few artists challenge, provoke, and reward the viewer quite like Goshka Macuga. Her exhibitions unfold like puzzles inviting you to lean in, read between the lines, and return with new questions.
In this piece, we explore the investigative spirit at the heart of Macuga’s practice and her diverse projects where research into history, archives, obscured narratives, and the politics of visual language take centre stage. From sculpture and tapestry to performance and installation, her work compels us to ask: what does it mean to look, to know, to understand?space

Words by

🔗 https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/5/14/goshka-macuga-art-of-reframing

16/04/2025

Aleksandra Gaca — a Poland-born, Netherlands-based, multi-award-winning textile designer and pioneer of 3D textiles. Her mastery lies in the interplay of material, colour, and pattern, creating textiles with both function and emotion.

Described by the Dutch Design Week jury as “poetic design with endless possibilities,” her creations go far beyond decoration — shaping acoustics, enhancing well-being, and transforming interiors, fashion boutique façades, and concept cars.

Passionate and persistent, Gaca thrives on challenges. Her success wasn’t built overnight, but through fearless experimentation, insatiable curiosity and a refusal to settle for the expected.

🔗Discover her full story:
https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/4/soft-power-aleksandra-gaca-and-her-3d-textiles

✒️Words by

26/03/2025

Edward’s creative eye was trained early. Already as a child, while others watched cartoons, he flipped through Vogue Italia under Franca Sozzani - soaking in aesthetics, storytelling, and visual codes that define his work today.

From academic research and trend analysis to fashion commentary on his blog and Substack, his practice is both analytical and deeply visual.
He likes to call his process “instinctual-visual-intertextuality”.

His multilayered collages act as visual dialogues with fashion, while his recent foray into creative consulting sees him shaping brand narratives through research and art coordination.

Click the link below for the full story.
https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2025/3/18/edward-kanarecki

Design & Culture by Ed

29/10/2024

Polish creatives Piotr Chamier (casting) and Pat Boguslawski (movement direction) are redefining the fashion narrative for high-end brands, championing creativity and diversity to resonate with today’s evolving audience.
Discover their stories and nonlinear careers in the latest article.

Meet two outstanding Polish creatives, Piotr Chamier and Pat Boguslawski, whose nonlinear careers have taken through various parts of the creative industry. Now, they collaborate with some of the most coveted fashion labels, fine-tuning their representation and experiential strategies to reflect th

16/10/2024

🪡 From the luxurious gold-work bonnets worn by wealthy women to the vibrant craft we know today, Kashubian embroidery has a fascinating story.

📃Explore how visionary artist Teodora Gulgowska translated motifs from gold work, painted glass, and polychrome furniture into creative designs, giving birth to an embroidery style that became a powerful symbol of beauty and cultural identity for the Kashubians. This craft also served as a means of empowering the local community in the face of encroaching industrialization in the early 20th century.

✨Today, embroidery in Kashubia remains ever-present practiced by grandmothers, daughters and men alike. This thriving tradition is the legacy of generations of artisans trained by Teodora Gulgowska. Meet Anna Miszczak, a highly respected artisan and educator dedicated to continuing and evolving the Kashubian craft. Discover her unique approach and her recent gold-work bonnet project.

Muzeum - Kaszubski Park Etnograficzny

One of Kashubia's most iconic crafts is embroidery, commonly known as ‘Kashubian embroidery' suggesting there's a single embroidery style. In reality though, the region is home to several distinct 'schools' of the craft. Just like the origins of the Kashubians themselves, the exact genesis of Kash

14/10/2024

💬At the peak of his career, Arkadius was the talk of London’s fashion scene. Suzy Menkes called him “the next Galliano,”while Colin McDowell noted, “some say (...) Arkadius is like Byron, mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Others think he is a fashion great genius.” His shows were eagerly awaited by critics who craved the boldness and audacity of his collections.

✨Arkadius—the man behind the myth and the star of the ongoing retrospective “Arkadius. Powerful Emotions. Confrontations.” at the Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa / Central Museum of Textiles —reflects on his creative process, inspirations, exhibition, state of the industry and more..

🔗Click the link for the full article.
http://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2024/10/arkadius

24/04/2024

Hyper-energetic, madly creative, and unapologetically professional. Zuza Krajewska. One of Poland’s most respected photographers specialising in portraiture.

Few photographers capture youth like she does. The topic of youth, being fashion’s long-standing obsession, is often romanticised in fashion imagery. However, Krajewska approaches this subject with depth and sensitivity. Her images are not just ‘about’ youth, but rather made ‘with’ them. Easily connecting and empathising with young generations, she gives youth a voice and agency through her art.

Full article in link below.
http://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2024/4/beauty-and-youth-through-her-own-lens-zuza-krajewska

22/04/2024

“How might craft evolve using tech?” and “How might tech evolve using craft?” These are fundamental questions for Anita Michałuszko and her collaborator Flavia Bon in their experimental research project titled Augmented Weaving.

Learn more about their experimental journey in the new article:
https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2024/4/craft-and-tech-collaborators-not-rivals

17/04/2024

Makers behind fashion collections deserve more recognition and celebration. This (and every week) is as an ideal time to amplify their voices. In this article, Magda Koluch and Kasia Borowicz, each boasting 20+ years of experience in luxury fashion, share their stories of passion, dedication and reflect on the state of craftsmanship in the industry today.

Magda Koluch and Kasia Borowicz. Two outstanding makers behind high end fashion collections share their stories of passion, dedication and reflect on the state of craft in the industry today.