Fashion in these interconnected times is no longer the exclusive preserve of designers and entrepreneurs who inhabit the four traditional capitals. Good things can happen out of any neighborhood, in any part of any country. Geographical separation from rat-race pressures, groupthink overload, and the extortionate premiums demanded by greedy landlords are increasingly prized freedoms—not to mention the luxury of being able to take your own time to develop. And so to beautiful Vienna, capital of Austria, from whence the word of mouth about Petar Petrov has reached a tipping point.
A quick résumé: Petrov, Bulgarian by birth, studied fashion at the University of Applied Arts Vienna when Raf Simons was a professor there (2000–2005). Petrov settled in Vienna, began with menswear, and in 2007 started designing for Austrian sophisticates—women in many fields who came to his apartment seeking modern-looking wardrobes able to flex across business and the quite dressed-up social events of Vienna and wherever they travel. Result: a collection that splits down into trouser suits with signature big-button details and the floaty, paneled, open-to-interpretation dresses he engineers. The dresses are pretty special, often in a bold print—maybe an irregular polka dot or something with a semi-diaphanous Lurex stripe—and they’re equipped with streamers to tie to the body or just let fly as you walk.
The lofty, creamy-walled enfilade rooms of Petrov’s studio-apartment are where he often shoots his collections, which can be inspected at @petarpetrovvienna. There’s an irony, of course; the static pictures, which show something of his world and his taste, can’t show the qualities of movement and tailoring detail that define their character. He has gotten this far cautiously, building relationships with influencers and friends—there’s a buzz. The next logical step would be to have some sort of walking presentation, something to finally establish that Petar Petrov is an actual person rather than a made-up brand name.
