I discovered New York-based brand Buci (pronounced Boo-Tsi, as its Instagram bio suggests) like many of its devoted fans: via video of a model wearing one of its dresses, taking a thin piece of fabric, tying it at the waist with a ribbon, and gathering it around the body like icing.
Not every dress designer Mishka Ivanovic makes is so easily transformed, but the look has become one of her signatures. And it’s easy to see why. It’s easily two dresses in one.
After wearing the popular Metis dress, I discovered that it can be effortlessly transformed into a top and worn with a pair of baggy jeans, if you just believe (or if you double-fold the fabric at bust level and let the sheer fabric pool around your legs). When I saw Ivanovic ahead of her off-calendar show, held in an apartment on West 10th Street three days before the official start of New York Fashion Week, she was almost taken aback by the flexibility of her design. “I never thought of wearing it like this… We should shoot it like this,” she said, before showing her photos of me wearing the dress two other ways. had I slightly shifted the previously photographed photos based on what felt right for the moment.
Like many young designers who go viral overnight and suddenly appear all over your feed, Ivanovic told me that she couldn’t believe how much and how quickly the New York fashion world embraced Buci. Even Bella Hadid wore it. “Every time someone tells me they love the brand or I see someone wearing it on the street, I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I’m so excited.'”‘How did they find us?’“
If not on Instagram or TikTok, then probably through a friend, I’d suggest. And she nodded before explaining that her goal is to design pieces that truly make you feel so beautiful that you’ll have to tell someone else about them and hope it makes them feel amazing too.
“If we’re making clothes, and we’re making new clothes in a world where we don’t need more clothes, I wanted every single garment that we made to last as long as possible. We change as people, and our style changes, and our shape changes,” she says of dresses like the Metis dress, which quickly spread her brand’s name through word of mouth among New York’s best-dressed.
And so she thought, is there a way to make a garment that can last through these different periods of our lives? “And we don’t get tired of wearing it because we can wear it in so many different ways,” she added. “And so I think it was about trying to make every garment that we put out last as long as possible, More “more than one outfit.”
Most of her clothes are handmade in New York—a handful of pieces are made in Portugal—because she draws inspiration from the city’s residents as well as from those who love its clothes. She studied at Parsons and has lived in the city for six years. “I feel like I’ve lived here long enough that the city has become a part of my subconscious. And a lot of these pieces [Spring 2025] “My collection is very much about things I would want to wear in the city and things that are specific to the city.”
They’re not over the top, she said, but definitely, “a little more out there and things that I think you could only wear in a city like New York. I wanted to go for more fun! Sheer ponchos, fluffy feathers, beaded chiffon, miniskirts… I’m really inspired by how much freedom New York gives us to be who we want to be.”
At the show, a handful of rose petals sat in a paper cup on each chair, and a live band played softly in the background as guests sipped champagne from coupes. Everyone was given a sheer poncho to wear, and the different pastel shades were arranged to create the illusion of an ombre rainbow. Models sauntered down the runway wearing lace mini dresses, two-piece jewelry, and feathered tops. Some danced, others held hands, and one fanned herself with a comically large fan made of long black feathers.
After the show ended, guests threw rose petals at the models, as they would at a wedding. And while most runway shows can’t be compared to a close friend’s nuptials, Buci’s is comparable. Instead of rushing out the door at the end of the show, friends and editors embraced, a handful of people wearing the brand itself. Many stopped to take photos of each other on the luxurious vintage couches draped in layers of sheer Buci fabric. There were whispers of what everyone was going to buy—the collection was already up for grabs—and words of encouragement from strangers who heard.
And just as I was leaving, someone came up to me, pointed to my Buci dress that I was wearing as a top, and shouted, “I’ll do the same!”
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