Drop Co. & VIRAGO at Holographik Space

For one evening the showroom belonged to two Croatian labels. Drop Co. makes bags, backpacks and accessories by hand in a one-person workshop in Zagreb, set up in 2021 by Ivoje, a tailor by trade, as an alternative to fast fashion; the leather comes from European tanneries as a by-product of the meat industry. VIRAGO is Barbara Janković’s line of blazers, denim, knitwear and capes, cut in small runs and in deadstock where she can get it, built around a word she took back from its old use as an insult.

Both collections stood together on the main floor. The Space was stripped to what actually carries a garment: white walls, an even floor and track lighting that can be moved, so leather and tailoring could be read at arm’s length — the seams, the hardware, the fall of a shoulder. Nothing went behind glass, which is how both makers work anyway.

The talk

The evening ran around a fashion talk between Ivoje and Barbara Janković. Both work slowly and in small numbers, with the choice of material as the first decision rather than the last, and the conversation stayed there: where a hide or a bolt of cloth comes from, what it costs to keep production small in Croatia, and what an independent label can honestly promise the person buying it.

Showroom days sit alongside the pop-ups and brand nights we run through the year, and the setup carries over between them with very little rebuilding. If you are presenting a collection to buyers, press or clients and need a space for it, get in touch.