Slow and steady wins the race.
It’s the process designer Henry Zankov has been following since founding his own label in 2020 after designing and consulting across the fashion industry for over 15 years for the likes of DKNY/Donna Karan, Edun and Diane von Furstenberg. And it’s certainly working.
“Helmut Lang said this back in the ’90s — ‘Everything I do is a work in progress.’ I feel that’s kind of how I see it. I would never admit to say I know everything right away. Rather, I’m always learning something every day,” Zankov told WWD.
“I feel really grateful that from when we started until now, things have been growing really steadily and in a meaningful way, and that’s always been really important to me,” Zankov said, adding that while he’s certainly a business person and designer simultaneously, since launching his label it’s been about going “slow and steady. Where every day informs the next one.”
Over the last six years the Russian-born, American founder and creative director has grown Zankov from an eye-catching, colorful emerging knitwear label into a fully fledged fashion brand that sits within New York’s new vanguard of designers alongside the likes of Rachel Scott, Christopher John Rogers, Willy Chavarria, Raul Lopez and more. In September 2025, Zankov made his runway debut with his spring 2026 collection, filled with new categories of tailoring and evening, during New York Fashion Week after seasons of standing presentations. His designs continue to delight and inspire through his use of pattern, textures and color that now goes beyond signature knitwear.
Leading up to that, Zankov collaborated with the likes of Selima Optique, Troye Sivan’s lifestyle label Tsu Lange Yor and DVF, and won the Google Shopping American Emerging Designer of the Year Award at the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards. This month, Zankov brought his “expressive sensbility” to Banana Republic’s timeless dressing with a cocreated, limited-edition, 27-piece capsule collection of men’s and women’s clothing and accessories.
“What’s been really interesting to see is how the collections evolved aesthetically and in size, and how even though the brand was established very specifically aesthetically, that has changed. The core hasn’t changed, but it has evolved,” he said of his own label, priced $675 to $2,200, comparing his design process to cooking or painting.
“You add colors that you feel are missing,” he added, noting the brand also introduced shoes produced by Luis Onofree, a member of the Portuguese Footwear Association, for spring 2027.
Following his highly successful capsule for DVF filled with a fringed knit cardigan, an Infinity geo merino wool turtleneck, a Bali floral garnet sequined mesh dress and more in 2025, Zankov was appointed its first artistic director in April, ushering in a new era for the iconic brand. In September, Zankov unveiled his first runway collection for DVF with a spring 2027 collection that met with strong praise and promise for his mix of familiar codes reworked into a, “wardrobe that feels lived now rather than archived,” WWD’s Thomas Waller said.
Now Zankov is being recognized at the annual WWD Honors gala with the WWD One to Watch Honor.
Although the designer isn’t shy about the sheer amount of hard work and dedication it takes to juggle both of his roles at Zankov and DVF, he’s certainly up for the task.
“Not to sound cliché, but I feel very lucky and able to do what I love,” Zankov said. Since his appointment, his Zankov operations, now made up of five employees, have moved into DVF’s Meatpacking District headquarters.
“As I go, I don’t have a goal at the end as far as what it needs to look like, but I have a sense of it. I’ve been very much informed by the creative process. I’ve learned a lot about the differences between the two, and where I need to lean more into for each brand. Again, it goes back to the same philosophy of everything is a work in progress,” he explained.
“As far as Zankov, it’s much smaller, it’s not a huge household name, and it’s definitely more experimental. I would say it’s a little bit more subversive whereas I think DVF is more sensual. I think there’s definitely a crossover between, you know, the two brands as far as when it comes to color and pattern and the ease of it, but I would say that’s kind of where it ends,” Zankov said. “Doing both, I’ve been able to experiment with things here that I wouldn’t be able to do without Zankov, and vice versa.”
The designer explained that coming into DVF, one of his main goals is to uphold von Furstenberg’s brand legacy while making it desirable again, not only to those in the fashion industry he’s surrounded by but customers who like the brand but haven’t necessarily seen themselves in it or related to it in recent years.
“Those girls are also Zankov girls. They buy Zankov, but they don’t buy DVF. There is definitely a crossover, but I think a lot about the existing customer and the new generation of women. I also think that DVF could be more than just for dresses,” he said of their potential shared consumer, including DVF’s multigeneration, established one.
As seen through DVF’s spring 2027 runway collection, he’s taking the right steps to do so not only by livening up the brand’s iconic wrap dress with his energetic prints and intriguing color combinations, but also rearranging its core of easy, print, sensuality and a rebellious streak through playing with the idea of wrapping via a wrapped ballerina top, skirts and scarf-like panels that cocooned the body, and draped T-shirts.
Another step in bringing the DVF consumer back and widening its reach comes through the brand’s return to wholesale after taking the business back in-house from its Chinese licensee and distributor Glamel in February 2025. In addition to dvf.com, they are selling at Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, KaDeWe in Berlin and Breuninger in Germany, with additional partners to be announced for the spring 2027 season.
Zankov said he also envisions the brand, priced $198 to $1,598, at specialty stores and small boutiques.
“What’s interesting is DVF is such a big name, but the product itself is very unique. It has a very singular, unique point of view, and I think it’s very, very much positioned to be in really special shops as opposed to it being everywhere,” he explained.
Amid all the hard work, Zankov said he finds joy through the people he works and collaborates with, and their conversations along the way, which often evoke specific feelings that result in collection inspirations.
“Every time I finish a collection or I finish a project, I don’t worry about where the idea is going to come from. It does somehow. Not to sound too woo woo, but I think you have to stay open to possibilities and stay open to information coming to you. I might walk down the street and go into a bookshop that I’ve never been to and find something there that might be really inspiring, like a book. I’m a really big sponge, and so I’m always absorbing and learning, and then certain things resonate, and I’m like, ‘Wait, that’s interesting. I’m going to explore that,'” he said. “That’s for both brands, but a lot of it is connected to instinct and a type of feeling. So it’s usually a feeling or a song, film or conversation with a friend that would evoke a feeling, and it feels interesting enough, then I pursue it and I build a whole story around that.”
Looking to the year ahead, Zankov said there’s “much to be done.”
“I’m really excited about carving out the next steps for my brand. We have a new chief executive officer [and business partner], Jack Tobin. I’ve been working with him for two years, and he joined recently on a more official basis. It’s a lot to do on my own. I’m more creative leaning. Of course, I’m a business-minded person, otherwise I wouldn’t still be here. But I need a partner in crime, and so I’m really excited to have someone at my corner, someone who can support me,” Zankov said of appointing Tobin, who continues to run his own luxury brand development and sales consulting agency, Jack Tobin Agency, in October.
“It takes a village, and I could never do this without the two of them,” he added of working with Carolyn Batista for public relations.
Since partnering with Jack Tobin Agency two years ago, Zankov has grown his brand’s international business more than tenfold and doubled its global stockist network, strengthening its foothold across Europe and North America. According to the company, new business has expanded into the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, securing key retail partnerships with Selfridges and Harrods in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris. The brand is also stocked at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Moda Operandi, Ikram, McMullen, A’maree’s, Kirna Zabete, Absolutely Fabrics, Chapters and Fondaco di Roma.
“I’m excited to discover where Zankov can really go as far as breaking out of just knitwear in the last couple of years and building out a wardrobe. I think now for us, it’s really about growing a serious business, so I’m really excited about exploring that,” Zankov said.