PIVOT has been lucky enough to shoot portraits and documentary series for Frankie Magazine since 2012. One such commission came in the form of photographing Gosia Piatek - founder, owner and manager of world-renowned Kowtow clothing.
Gosia has an interesting background. Born in Poland, her family fled the country in 1985 and headed for Italy where they spent two years in a refugee camp. Now as the creative director of her own clothing label she runs a staff of ten with stockists here in Wellington and abroad – Scandinavia being one of the label’s largest markets. The brand’s minimalist aesthete appeals to a diverse range of people whom she cites are anywhere between the ages of seventeen to seventy. And testament to where the brand sits on the international fashion frontier, Kowtow recently been picked up by an agent in New York, and now supply out of warehouses in the US and Belgium.
From small beginnings, especially as someone who had no formal training in the fashion industry, she says it was her hunger and ‘young, delusional self’ that got her through the late nights and hard work of what is essentially an incredibly stressful industry.