Meet Angelika Jozefczyk and Anna Szbert
Story and Photography by Terry Check
When Masquerade Magazine asked its readers, “Name the world’s most famous fashion designers?” The answers ranged from the Italians, Valentino Garavani and Giorgio Armani to French Coco Channel and American Ralph Lauren. Now, emerging fashion designers with extraordinary talents are being noticed from around the world and in placesas global as Poland.
Anna Szbert The Polish fashion brand, Cosel, was created by Anna Szbert as a slow fashion brand. What is a slow fashion brand in comparison to a fast fashion brand? Many consumers enjoy fast fashion which creates accessible and stylish types of high couture garments at affordable prices for the mass market. However, with the burden on labor markets in third world countries and the environmental controls, fast fashion encourages low wages and poor working conditions in the clothing factories of Cambodia, Indonesia and China, and consumes significant water resources. Since the low-cost, mass-producedclothing tends to be a short-lived, fashion fad, the unsold garments (78 million pounds every year) are usuallyillegally dumped in the Atacama Desert in South America, and often burnt adding to global air pollution.
Conversely, slow fashion is generally made of higher quality materials designed to remain in style and part of a women’s wardrobe for many years.Slow fashion produces sustainable garments with areduced carbon footprint, less water consumption, and little negative impact on the environment.
The Cosel brand, conceived by Anna Szbert, is more than just slow fashion. She mentioned, “All materials used in collections are unique and unrepeatable, created in a duet of designs and graphics. The world of nature is the main design of printed fabrics used by the brand. Cosel clothes are entirely sewn in Poland.” Every year Cosel collections are themed as a Queen: such as the Queen of Butterflies, Queen of Safari, Queen of Ocean and Queen of Nature. As a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts, Anna Szubert designs limited additions of original, colorfully printed clothing. Wearing Cosel’s feminine apparel, womenfeel and look beautiful.
Shop online at https://cosel.moda/ and enjoy the Milan fashion show at https://cosel.moda/milan-fashion-show-queen-of-the-coral-reefs/
Angelika Jozefczyk Beginning her career in Poland, then Europe and eventually coming to the United States, the fashion designer, Angelika Jozefczyk, known as “AJ” was born into fashion. Her grandparents established the first family brand in Poland, followed by her parents and now, AJ has created a fashion brand for discerning women with an appreciation of superb quality, uniqueness and the best life has to offer.When wearing this luxurious brand, women feel confident, sensuous, empowered and assured to succeed in their endeavors.
Every collection has a theme. For Spring/Summer 2022 the period of “Art Nouveau” (New Art) from the early 1900s is brought forward from the tight corsets of the Edwardian period to a “new soft fashionable female silhouette”.Jozefczyk was inspired by the decorative arts of William Morris, designing patterns on wallpapers and fabrics, and celebrating the avant-garde Gustav Klimt painting with gold leaf immortalizing women and their sexuality. The collection featured both embroidered fabrics patterned like artwork, andusing satin and chiffon with flowing lines of pastel colors.
For the Fall/Winter 2021 Collection, “Moon Love” was inspired by the femininity of the 1980s with the public icons of Debbie Harry (songwriter and singer with the cult band Blondie) and Diana Spencer (Princess of Wales). By tailoring fitted shapes of suits and draped dresses, the fashions highlighted the woman’s hour-glass figure using wool textiles, silks and shiny sequins.
With this collection, like all of AJ fashions, the designer focused on quality and timeless classics working with materials from European producers, mainly from Italy and the UK, produced by local family tailor workshops with extraordinary workmanship.
Looking forward to 2022, Jozefczyk is planning fashion shows in Dubai and then Milan as she builds brand awareness. Contact AJ fashions online at www.angelikajozefczyk.com or visit the showrooms in Warsaw, London, New York and Los Angeles.
