Big brands
At the start of the millennium, Poland’s fashion brands grew in popularity along with celebrity designers, but their business models, however, based on the successful brands of the West, called for swifter growth and more expansive reach.
One of the biggest Polish fashion success stories of the time is Simple, a label established in 1993 by Lidia Kalita and Maja Palma (today known as Simple Creative Products, part of the Gino Rossi capital group). Its founders picked up on the particular needs of active career women at just the right time, offering well-tailored, high-quality clothing for the office and beyond. The brand’s signature look recasts the latest trends in a minimalist spirit.
Poland’s most recognizable fashion brands include Patrizia Aryton, established in 1989 simply as Aryton, by Danuta Cierocka and Ryszard Cierocki. The company added Patrizia two decades later, when the couple’s daughter Patrycja joined the team as the company’s artistic director. It also expanded its reach further by collaborating with Dawid Tomaszewski, a world-class designer based in Berlin, to create discretely elegant and functional collections.
No look is complete without the right accessories. Poland produces high-quality leather goods that set luxury as the standard. Wittchen, a brand launched in Poznań by Jędrzej Wittchen in 1990, is synonymous with premium handbags, gloves, wallets, belts and luggage. The name Batycki also remains known for its stylish handbags for decades. The brand, established by Tadeusz Batycki in Gdańsk in 1948, refers to its Baltic heritage in every piece, with a bead of amber part of its signature design.