Natasha Zinko was born in Ukraine and raised in a community of eclectic characters that she now reminisces over while watching the comedy series Shameless. Upcycling was an organic way of life. Today, she calls London home, and on Friday night, she gave us a peek into her family here.

Family Bizness filled the runway with cameos from colourful characters. Zinko’s son assisted with the show’s sound, while other family members worked with her on the creation of the collection. In the final moments, 2 became 1 as Mel B closed out the show and accompanied Natasha for her kiss to the crowd.

Backstage, we greeted a glowing Zinko and got to know her family a little better.

So you've mentioned that this collection had themes of your family business, and how you passed that on and denim and sharing. With the fashion industry where it is now, how do you feel in terms of those relationships in the modern day? For example, brands talking about sustainability, and sharing is a big part of that.

As I said, I was raised in an environment where we naturally had to upcycle. So actually, I didn't know it was called that, you know? And DIY, what is this? What is this upcycling? We just live like that. So actually, for me, it's real life, you know? I'm used to it, you know. I mean, we would have something like a box and we wouldn’t throw it away because maybe we were gonna use it for something. We were really kind of, you know, very precise with everything. There were no limits, you know?

Without limits, you always do it like this. But, I think I'm talking about this now because I think family is actually a very important thing, and I love the support that I have. And doing this collection was such a pleasure, you know.

I watched Shameless, the American one. And I went, "Oh my God, I've seen it somewhere." I don't want to say I lived in such bad conditions, but amongst the bad, there is this community, and they get together, even when they're angry. They never say, "Oh, no, no, no, no. I can't." They'll do it. That's what my family do, you know?

They are always there for me, I'm always there for them. Because I lived in a yard, it was a very small yard of these neighbors... and actually they were all from Shameless, I think.

They were personalities that I actually implemented in this collection... in a collection with fun characters, like different people... and they are kind of one family, you know?

Then did that inform your castings? Obviously, it was a traditional runway, but you also kind of had little cameos happening.

But they're real. You know, the idea: some of them are models and some of them are from street casting. And we asked them to be themselves... to be proud of themselves. And they ask, "What should I do?" I said "do whatever you want." Do whatever you want, be yourself. And I think this variety of people makes it family as well.

Can you talk to me a bit about the pattern cutting for the collection?

All these pieces that you've seen, there are some patterns inside which look simple, but they're layered already, and it's pre-cut like this. The customer doesn't have to think about how to wear it. The brown mink fox jacket, and then you have a leopard one. It's already attached. In a way, it's falling. So I was thinking of that layering, you know.

I want to always give the customer the idea that they can do something, add something new, but you have something old that you can kind of reuse.

At the moment in the London scene, there's a lot of discussion around the different fashion capitals, and some are rising and some are falling. With your links to Europe, what makes you choose to stay in London and show your clothes in London?

I moved here. I was studied at Central Saint Martin's, and it's home.

What would you say to designers who have their home in London but are choosing to move elsewhere?

Maybe it's also a strong decision, you know. I have my workshop here. I have people who have been working for 13 years. It's my team and workshop. I love them. I can't just move. It's my family.