Ever since our “Go East” print issue from Spring 2020, we carefully follow the fashion movements developing east of Berlin with our column Ostblick. Currently, the war in Ukraine is nothing but depressing. But then there are slivers of hope, like the increased interest in fashion from the war-torn country from all over the world. This consumer-led phenomenon for fashion from designers like Anna October, Ksenia Schnaider, Bevza or Litkovska also bodes well for Eastern European fashion in general. Under the stewardship of long time Romanian Elle editor Roxana Popescu, a Mercedes-Benz Bucharest fashion week has come to the forefront while Kiev is currently too risky a destination for non-Ukrainian designers. So, the latest round of Bucharest shows hosted Litkovska, Schnaider and Bevza but it is built around homegrown talent like Amalia Săftoiu with her label Ami Amalia which is based on knitwear and stands as a perfect example of how to build a meaningful brand with Eastern European heritage these days.

When we hopped to Bucharest for one night to witness the Ami Amalia show on a Saturday morning about a week ago and talk to some locals, our curiosity to visit the Romanian capital for the first time was high while the expectation for fashion not so. Bucharest feels like a classic former Eastern Bloc city slowly arriving in current times with its long, several lane, straight highways filled with Dacia’s and Skoda’s plus a high percentage of German luxury cars, international fast-food and hotel chains and of course the local outpost of big fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and Max Mara. Popescu explained that she wants to use Bucharest as a hub for fashion from the East by inviting bigger names like Nanushka from Hungary and filling the void created by the absence of Kiev and Moscow catwalks which were the established gateways before the war. Bucharest didn’t even have a fashion week before, but now the timing feels right. Former international model stars like Diana Moldovan have moved back to Bucharest after long international careers and everyone is proud here of Andreaa Diaconu who is still a big international star. Ami Amalia founder Săftoiu is a trained lawyer from Rumania who has lived abroad for a long time before exiting the business world in 2017 where she specialized in contract and project management. She bought a knitwear factory in Transylvania on a whim with the hope to create something which counters mass retail with its cheap garments made from chemicals often made under gruesome conditions in developing countries. Her unique selling point being natural yarn for an eco-conscious client in small numbers. She made a few trips to Pitti Immagine Filati in Florence to reconnect with her childhood memories of wearing non-artificial fibers and simple but honest wools. Ordering a few things in Florence she put her factory to work and has created a smart range of knitwear based on Transylvanian folkloric colors and patterns with a bestseller called the Romanian blouse: an emblematic ancestral archetype. Traditionally, the blouses are passed from generation to generation and can express age, social status or reference a life event like a wedding. Generally, the patterns are colorful, floral and often specific to the region.

Transylvania is not only a bucolic paradise but also Romania’s textile production center with a rich cultural history through its Hungarian and German influences (in German it is called Siebenbürgen). Săftoiu has cleverly used the region as location for the creation of campaign images with Diana Moldovan. An expert in process engineering, Săftoiu’s business model is all about keeping as little stock as possible and avoiding returns. She focuses on timeless designs like the blouse and can accommodate customer design wishes due to her in house factory which allows for rapid production with pieces shipped immediately after they are made. The benefit being no waste, little stock and exclusivity through limited availability. Săftoiu is still learning the ins and outs of the fashion system but has decided to elevate her brand awareness by participating in the local fashion weeks in Bucharest and Budapest. After all Missoni is a pure knitwear brand and has shows as well. She partnered with celebrity stylist Julia von Boehm on a range of knitwear a few years ago and now she works with Domnica Margescu, the fashion director of the local Elle edition who also has a cool concept store called Aparterre with labels like Proenza Schouler and JW Anderson. The latest collection featured an interesting lineup of actors, local celebs and friends of the brand including an 86-year-old lady who walked the catwalk. The pastel toned color palette for the knitted twinsets, sweater suits and cocktail coat dresses in lots of different textures benefitted from Margescu’s clever styling and great casting. Basically, all of cool Bucharest was on the catwalk or in the audience. Ami Amalia also has a centrally located flagship store which only opened last December and is now ready to grow beyond its Romanian borders to remind customers that a natural yarn has all the benefits of sustainability: biodegradable, breathable, odor resistant with long lifespans. And as other brands like Magda Butrym and Nanushka have proven by being based in Warsaw and Budapest, Amalia can make Bucharest an advantage when it comes to novelty, inclusion of sincere cultural references which are not tired and a strong local following. Plus, of course a factory in Transylvania.