About the Founder

Antonina Maria Pawlowicz is the creative force behind Antonina Poppy — a designer, creative director and consultant whose work moves between ready-to-wear, haute couture and brand consultancy. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, she has developed a practice that merges craftsmanship, textiles and contemporary culture with a strong international perspective.

Her career began in the ateliers of Iris Van Herpen and Alexander Wang, where she contributed to collections for Paris Fashion Week under the Fédération de la Haute Couture and New York Fashion Week. These experiences immersed her in the language of experimental textiles and couture innovation, shaping a design philosophy rooted in precision, material exploration and bold visual storytelling.

She later joined Vivetta, working between Florence and Milan, where she created fabrics, embroideries, jewellery, accessories and prints for collections presented at Milan Fashion Week. Here, she also learnt styling under the mentorship of Patti Wilson, Stylist & Fashion Consultant at Streeters Agency and Senior Contributing Fashion Editor at Dazed.

In 2020, while establishing her young brand Antonina Poppy, she was recognised by Vogue Italia as one of only 14 designers worldwide selected for its prestigious Portfolio Review. Her work was reviewed by Sara Sozzani Maino and Simonetta Gianfelici, placing her among a new wave of designers redefining sustainable fashion. That same year, she began her consultancy career, collaborating with international houses and often leading full collections remotely. Her clients have included Magda Butrym, Made & Eve, Silvia Tcherassi, and LUISAVIAROMA, where she continues to oversee creative direction and brand development.

In 2024, she reached a new milestone with the opening of the first Antonina Poppy boutique in Florence. Within only a few months, she built a 12-person international team to work under her direction - a growth she credits to her parallel experience as a lecturer at three Italian universities, including Istituto Marangoni, where she taught fashion design, sustainability and collection development.

“Academic work strengthened my ability to structure and delegate and gave me the confidence to build and lead my own team - an approach that continues to shape how I direct Antonina Poppy today.” - Antonina Maria Pawlowicz

Shifting into Technology

Antonina belongs to a new generation of designers working at the meeting point of craft and technology. Her perspective was first formed in the atelier of Iris Van Herpen, where couture became a dialogue between nature and innovation. Today, she continues this exploration: her garments are crafted by hand using traditional, often centuries-old techniques and then expanded into AI-generated imagery and films that visualise almost dreamlike, futuristic worlds.

For Antonina, technology is not a replacement but an extension of craftsmanship — a way to deepen storytelling, create new forms of emotional expression, and expand fashion into new territories. Antonina Poppy is no longer only a brand: it is a Florence-based creative studio, a platform where heritage and innovation converge to shape the future of fashion.