Agga B Raya

Biography

Agga Raya was born into fashion with a father and mother who were totally immersed as designers and manufactures of clothing labels in Poland. As a child, cutting tables and sewing machines were the environment of Agga’s playground. By age 16, Agga put together her first fashion show of collection pieces entirely made out of paper inspired by Chinese art. Agga’s mother, Bozena Bonkowska has actively managed the company, Bonitex, who manufactures labels such as Max Mara, French Connection, Gabrielo Sabatini and S’Oliver for over twenty years. Agga’s father, Jerzy Bonikowski , established exclusive “hip hop” fashion labels in Europe, Ukraine, Russia and Poland.

Although Agga entered the Polish University of Law in Lodz at age 18, she was drawn back to fashion with a passion she could not ignore. In 2004 at age 21, Agga had moved to New York City and began working as a fashion stylist for photo shoots and runway shows. During that period Agga was coordinating and styling runway shows for brands such as United Colors of Benetton, Levis, Cachè and Arden B. while simultaneously designing and selling her own accessories, scarves and pants. She sold her designs to street vendors on New York City’s hip Prince and Green Streets. She worked at Avalon and connected with the club scene where her designs were a big hit. While working an internship with a French label, Genes, for six months, Agga was introduced to the world of fabric and trim vendors and production companies and quickly became hooked on the idea of becoming a designer. During this time, Agga was selected to design a collection for an International Modeling Competition for the opening show at Hilton Hotel Manhattan and designed clothes for Traxx Records.

Agga moved to Chicago in 2006 where she had an opportunity to set up a production studio to begin designing her sample collections. As a successful and extremely creative fashion stylist, Agga quickly began to work with the editors of every important magazine and newspaper in Chicago – The Tribune, Gliterati, Flaunt, Joy, Chicago Social, Time Out, New City, Factio, Chicago Scene, Soak,Sift…

The AGGA B. collection began to immerge on the editorial pages. Agga was featured in the Chicago Sister Cities Fashion Show in September 2006 and was selected to be a featured designer of Genart’s Fresh Faces 2007.