My name is Rareș Tiron, and what follows is my account of the brothers Radu and Silviu Zavate, whom I know personally. It tells who Radu is, the designer trained as an architect, and how Silviu built a business on his brother’s vision. And it closes with how ZAVATE became, in just a few years, a complete menswear brand.
1. What do two brothers share when it comes to business?
As children, we heard it everywhere: in Romania, it can’t be done; here, everything goes wrong; Romanians are condemned to mediocrity. I, too, once believed that Romanians bought their clothes at the shopping centre, dressed in petroleum, plastic and synthetics.
The story that follows is meant to make one point clear: there is always an alternative. Two brothers, two worlds and a single dream: to see men better dressed. This piece is about how the imagination of one and the composure of the other created a brand unlike any other on the market: ZAVATE. Because first impressions really do count.
2. Who is Radu Zavate, and why is clothing his weapon?
I met the Zavate brothers in the autumn of 2019. At the time, they were still in the spring of their careers. Their company felt like a show of light and colour. Radu Zavate is the wild child of the team. He sketches, defines the lines, pirouettes among the fabrics. An architecture graduate, he did not stop at drawings of buildings. A garment is to a man what a façade is to a wall. So he went off the beaten track and began to practise architecture directly on the male body.
No, he is not a beautician. Radu is something more: an armourer. He understood that, for the urban man, the suit is his weapon. Radu provides the creative spark and, when the client proposes, Radu disposes. Obsessed with work done properly, he treats no sartorial fantasy as out of bounds. He is proof that a fiery spirit and an architect’s pencil can turn geometry into art.
3. How did Silviu Zavate turn a vision into a business?
If Radu is the restless artist, Silviu Zavate is his rational counterpart. “One is the heart, the other is the brain”, they like to joke. Ambitious yet level-headed, enterprising yet measured, Silviu understood that his brother’s flashes of brilliance could come together into a coherent business. A telecommunications engineer, an entrepreneur by vocation and a man with a passion for economics, he founded a telecoms start-up before the age of 24. Now, at 36, he can call himself a fulfilled man.
“But Silviu,” I asked him at the showroom, “what do telecoms have to do with the world of clothing?” “In both, the principle is the same: a satisfied client. Whatever you do, the only contribution the world expects from you is value. That is why, here at ZAVATE, the relationship with our clients comes first. Premium tailoring is built on it.” I saw no reason to disagree.
4. How did ZAVATE become a complete menswear brand?
ZAVATE was founded in 2017 as a made-to-measure tailoring atelier, at a time when the Romanian client was still taking tentative steps in his sartorial education. Back then, it looked like entrepreneurial courage bordering on recklessness. Within a few years, however, ZAVATE had become a benchmark in its field. Today, it offers a wide range of fabrics, patterns and finishes. From them come suits, overcoats and shirts of understated masculine elegance.
More recently, casual jackets, sneakers and even jeans have joined the range. It is the next chapter of the dream Radu and Silviu share. What began as a luxury tailoring atelier is now a complete menswear brand.
