


What are you currently working on?
I'm working on a collection for spring/summer 2025, which is a return to my roots for me, although I know it sounds kind of funny because my brand has only been around for two and a half years. My focus is still on analysing workwear. I always look at workwear from the perspective of something else - in previous collections it was an analysis of corporate outfit, then cowboy outfit, this time I'm taking a more literal approach. I look at so-called construction workers, mainly the Japanese ones, because they have a very interesting style. So the core of the collection is construction workwear.
What are the characteristics of Japanese workwear?
It is unique, with loose trousers on one side and obscure pieces, harnesses on the other. It inspired me to use metal cables in my latest collection, which are very industrial, but at the same time look delicate. Until now I have found it difficult to combine delicacy with the ethos of my brand - and dresses will be a big part of this new collection, so these steel cables have opened up a world of new connections for me and I feel it could be my new signature, much like the colour workwear blue.
And how do these steel links relate to the utilitarian nature of your garments, their practicality, such as washing?
They can be easily removed and the fabric pieces simply washed as usual according to the instructions on the label. The lines are smooth and pleasing to the body but at the same time very strong, I buy them at Castorama. I like this contrast of airiness with rawness. I come to these conclusions when working on my first fashion show. Because clothes look different statically and different in motion, on different people.


Where did the show take place?
It took place in a historic house in Żoliborz, on Wieniawskiego Street. It was the house left by my grandparents, which was then waiting for renovation. So the venue was a nice metaphor for the moment I was in as a brand – I mean – under construction. I had great partners, among them the PURO Hotel. The show took place on three floors of the house, including the attic where my grandmother, a painter, had her studio. The director of the show was Kasia Sokołowska. We made a reference to the original haute couture shows, where the models walked slowly around the salons. I think it was the opening of a new stage for me and a cool, intimate experience.
It's important because it was your first fashion show.
The show took place during the time when Warsaw Gallery Weekend was in Warsaw. I was happy that people saw these clothes in an art-vibe context; they walked around galleries all weekend and came to me too. It was known that this was wearable art and these clothes were for sale. But art was also for sale. Sometimes I envied artists who had full control over the process of creating art. They bought the paints, stretched the canvas, painted, and it was done. Preparing the clothes was usually a team effort; someone invented and drew, someone cut, someone sewed. However, with this collection, I felt the whole artistic process first-hand; I spent a whole holiday working on it, and I sewed a lot of things in this collection myself, so I got to know these new designs very closely.

How will the collection be sold?
I'm no longer in a showroom, I don't have the resources to do stock, so I'll be going towards preorders. I'm starting to work with an app that allows pre-sales. You make an advance payment on a project, then the customer has a set amount of time to pay for the rest. The advance should be enough to produce things. It's also very sustainable production, you don't sew more than you need. And above all, it gives me the opportunity to reach a bigger audience. Previously, the whole collection was going to Paris, where there was a showroom, and then to Japan, where there were already regular sales. However, in this way the collection was inaccessible to people from Poland and other countries. So I hope the preorder option will solve these problems.
Who sews your clothes? And what materials are they made of?
I have seamstresses in Grochów, a sewing room in Legionowo and in Łódź. This season the materials will be four: denim from Portugal, silk, Polish-made jersey and denim, which I always use. This season I was very inspired by Helmut Lang's designs. I was in the archive of his works in Berlin. I was inspired by his approach to deconstruction and trims in particular, just as I was inspired a lot by his tank tops. This reference is an important feature of this collection for me. After all, we all function in contexts and not in a vacuum.

Jan F. Chodorowicz – studied fashion design in Israel and London, interned with Marc Jacobs in New York, among others. After completing his MA at Central Saint Martins, he founded the brand JAN/F/CHODOROWICZ, in which he reinterprets workwear in a new way every season. His collections have been shown several times in the showroom at Paris Fashion Week, from where they travelled to Japan, where they are available in Tokyo and Osaka. His designs have been featured in Polish and foreign magazines, including Vogue, Elle, L'officiel and Harpers Bazaar. Vogue Polska called him the most interesting designer of the young generation.
Zdjęcia: Piotr Czyż, Katarzyna Białoń, Alicja Lesiala
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