Henry Zankov

Henry Zankov is a Russian-born American fashion designer and founder of ZANKOV. Born in St Petersburg in the Soviet Union, he moved to the United States with his family at the age of nine and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. He studied womenswear at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where his interest in drape and textile construction drew him towards knitwear. An internship at TSE introduced him to luxury cashmere development before he joined Donna Karan after graduation as an assistant menswear designer. He later worked at Edun as senior knitwear and jersey designer, building a career around soft construction, yarn and material development.

Zankov joined Diane von Furstenberg in 2014 as design director of knitwear and remained for approximately four years. The house sharpened his use of saturated colour and gave him experience applying knitwear inside a broad commercial womenswear system. After leaving DVF he worked independently and introduced a six-sweater ZANKOV capsule in 2019 as a compact visual project. The label formally entered the market in February 2020. During the pandemic Zankov repurposed existing sweater stock into pillows and blankets, then rebuilt the business through seasonal collections, wholesale and an expanding wardrobe of knitwear, wovens, dresses, tailoring and outerwear.

ZANKOV became a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up in 2023 and Zankov received the CFDA American Emerging Designer of the Year award in 2024. The label staged its first full runway for Spring/Summer 2026 and followed with Fall/Winter 2026, Think of Me More and More, at Storied NYC. Zankov also returned to Diane von Furstenberg for a limited Fall 2025 capsule developed with Nathan Jenden and the DVF design organisation. On 27 May 2026 he was appointed DVF artistic director with responsibility for collections and visual identity. He continues to lead ZANKOV, whose studio now shares the Meatpacking District headquarters with DVF while remaining a separate label.

Zankov treats knitwear as both textile and structure. Merino wool, mohair, alpaca, ribbing, intarsia and jacquard carry saturated colour through stripes, checks and abstract geometry, while stitch and yarn weight determine how a garment sits on the body. The result can be visually emphatic without becoming physically rigid: sweaters, tubular dresses and knit separates retain softness, movement and a strong tactile presence.

Ease and sensuality run through the work. Donna Karan gave Zankov an early grounding in drape, touch and practical dressing, and his first DVF period expanded his confidence with colour and a complete commercial wardrobe. Inside ZANKOV, those lessons appear through relaxed trousers, wrap-like constructions, body-skimming dresses and enveloping outerwear. The clothes are styled with gender fluidity, while the current runway system is principally framed as womenswear.

The namesake label has steadily widened its material vocabulary. Woven cottons, metal-infused wool, silk, denim, leather, tailoring cloth and organza now sit beside the core knit system, giving each season more possibilities for surface and silhouette. Artist collaborations are folded directly into that material language: paintings become intarsia or embroidery, illustration becomes print, and jewellery or eyewear is developed as part of the look. Zankov’s current DVF role extends his attention to colour and image across a second house, while his independent practice remains centred on tactile construction, graphic clarity and the pleasure of wearing colour.