Rooted at the base of the household, as with many Estonians, was practicality. “It’s so cold that it’s a much more practical approach to clothing,” says Parv. “Estonia only became independent when I was born, so its understanding of fashion hasn’t really developed. It’s all about reusing and sharing clothes. I grew up wearing my mum’s clothes; she grew up wearing her mum’s clothes, or something we found and fixed. It’s a very eastern European mindset.”
Despite Estonia’s separation from the fashion world, Parv began pursuing her career seriously in her teens. At 18, she uprooted her life to London to study BA womenswear at Central Saint Martins – though her former lack of access to the industry soon started to show. “I was going through all the books in the Central Saint Martins library and I stopped on Prada. I said to my friends, ‘Do you guys know this brand, Prada?’ I didn’t even know what Prada was,” she admits. “If I told my father I was going to work for Givenchy he wouldn’t know what it was. If I say ‘LVMH’ in Estonia, people wouldn’t know it. To me, H&M was luxury.”
Twelve years since discovering the brand in the corner of the library, today, she cites Miuccia Prada as one of her favourite designers, alongside Coco Chanel. “A lot of people think Chanel is old-fashioned now, but I went to the exhibition at the V&A and I cried; I burst into tears. Where she came from and what she built is so personal to me. She’s my muse as a designer.”
Another of her muses is gender-blurring Tilda Swinton in the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel, Orlando. Much like Orlando, Parv has spent the past decade playing chameleon in unknown realms. She spent eight months in Paris, working between Balenciaga and Christian Dior, did a three-year stint with sportswear brand Soar Running, and later went to work as an accessories designer at Burberry. She received her master’s degree from CSM and, last year, became the latest recruit of Fashion East, Lulu Kennedy’s esteemed fashion incubator that helped launch the careers of Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner and Kim Jones, to name a few.
Having shown her final collection with Fashion East in February this year, Parv is about to fly solo for the first time, dauntingly, without financial support. But of course, our impressively practical designer isn’t panicking. “My mum always said, ‘Don’t be afraid of being in the field by yourself.’ I just have to keep going and be brave. You can’t worry about things like that. It is what it is, something else will come. Relying on external forces is not good.”
For now, she’s working on a new collection that she plans to show in Milan this June (she would rather show in Paris, but the Olympics has got in the way). She’s also keeping a hopeful eye on Newgen, the British Fashion Council’s initiative supporting emerging design talent – “Without Newgen I would have to do something else. Because I wouldn’t have the money to put on a show.”
I wonder if she would consider following in the footsteps of many previous Saint Martins alumni and work at a fashion house, although it’s a question I already know the answer to. Johanna Parv is Johanna Parv’s only focus: “My ideal would be to get enough support for my own business that I can just be the creative director of my own brand,” she says. “I really don’t think there’s anyone doing what I want to do, and I really believe in what I want to do.”
Hair JOE BURWIN at ORIBE, make-up LYNSKI, model NATALIA MONTERO at ELITE, set design RORY MULLEN at MA+ TALENT, photographic assistant ARIEL MIHALY, styling assistant LUCY PROCTOR, hair assistant HEITEI CHEUNG, set design assistant ANGELA MULHERN, production PARENT, casting GOOD CATCH at NEW SCHOOL REPRESENTS
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