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The 28th Ukrainian Fashion Week (UFW) came to an end on March 22. Over fifty designer brands presented their fall/winter collections to both Ukrainian and foreign experts. There was also a record number of prominent guests. Famous fashion industry professionals came to Art Arsenal to see the achievements: fashion editor of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Renata Fontanelli (a brief interview with Fontanelli will be found in the upcoming issues of The Day), the founder of the

Global Fashion Management (GFM) Ronald Denis, fashion consultant Lee Edelkort, Italian buyer and fashion consultant Alessandra Dainelli, Anna Kushnierova and Roman Brau (the owners of concept store “ra”), editor-in-chief of the Russian Glamour Alla Beliakova, and others.

The Ukrainian Fashion Week was traditionally opened by Lilia Pustovit’s collection, inspired this time by the world-known aria from Bellini’s opera Norma (by the way, the designer told The Day about this at the end of last year, in an interview carried on December 9). Leaving aside all the details, we’ll say that the image created by Lilia – naive, honest, natural, and full of dignity and self-respect, seemed to us, absorbed by social and political events, extremely important and topical for Ukraine and beyond. It’s wonderful that the Ukrainian designers perceive such delicate ideas and energy.

A number of educational activities have traditionally been held within the framework of the fashion week. In particular, an exhibit of restored clothes, prepared together with the Kyiv National Institute for Technologies and Design, which gave a visual and even textile idea of what women’s fashion in the 19th century looked like. Oleksii Shtraf presented his take on modern Ukrainian fashion history in the book Voronin, dedicated to life and creative activity of the designer Mikhail Voronin.

Foreign guests were, of course, primarily interested in the collections by the stars of the Ukrainian runway Lilia Pustovit, Fedir Vozianov and Iryna Karavay. They have repeatedly proven to be masters in their art. We were no less (and even more) interested in seeing the young Ukrainian designers. This time the project “New Names” presented six new faces in Ukrainian fashion. The majority of their collections looked fresh and creative, though without the maximalism characteristic of youth. They mainly demonstrated a mature approach, meaningful lines, images and silhouettes.

Perhaps the designers’ style was dictated by the conditions in which they began. These “new names” appeared in Ukrainian fashion when it was undergoing a crisis. Hence, the inclination toward minimalism, natural fabrics, and natural images.

These “new names” aroused our interest the most. What is the young fashion runway like in Ukraine? What is fashion for? The Day asked experts for comment.

COMMENTARIES

Olha SOBOL, designer, participant of the project “New Names” at the 28th UFW:

“I already like what I observe today on the Ukrainian runway. Our designers started thinking about more complex intellectual questions, about solving global problems of mankind. There are more natural fabrics and ecological models. I’d even say that the topic of ecology and saving nature is a current trend on Ukraine’s runways. Though, in general, each Ukrainian designer works in his or her own direction and they create their own trends. Some work in a hi-tech direction, and are apt in using architectural geometric forms, some are attracted by the theme of nature and create their own models, using eternal images of earth, forest, water, etc.

“Young fashion, in my opinion, does not differ from its senior colleagues. For me it’s important for the clothes I create to help those who will wear them, for them to be not only a cover of fabric, seams and ornaments, but a part of their owner, reflecting his or her essence. Therefore they should be comfortable and of course, affordable.

“In my creative activity I use both Ukrainian and global codes. Therefore I am sure that what currently is going on in the world: the catastrophe in Japan, the Libyan military conflict, and seismic activity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in the Philippines – one soon will see the ‘shades’ of all these events in designers’ creations.”

Liera PECHENA, designer, participant of the project “New Names” at the 28th UFW:

“To be honest, I have a rather skeptic view of the notion of ‘trend’ in fashion. I suppose what became a trend is not fashion any more. Since fashion is creativity, search, and originality, not a conveyer.

“Of course, in Ukraine there are great designers, like Lilia Pustovit or Lilia Litkovska who dictate some tone to the fashion world — some people call this a trend. The regretful thing is that while the world pays attention to such designers, in Ukraine people do not. Their brands are known almost throughout the world, fashionable European women willingly buy and wear their products, but in Ukraine they are not mature enough for this. One can see this by looking at the audience that usually visits the Ukrainian Fashion Week. Unfortunately, there are few people who dress in a modest yet tasteful way.

“But I believe that already in 10-20 years in Ukraine not only show-biz celebrities, actors or politicians will wear clothes made by designers.

“Personally I believe fashionable clothes are something comfortable, natural, strong, reliable, interesting, they should ‘breathe,’ and, most importantly, not discord with the personality of the individual wearing them.

“We dedicated our previous collection to the closeness of the fashion generation. That is because we often see young people in the streets that are closed, lost in their own world. It’s difficult to come up to such people and start a conversation with them. Therefore we decided to create clothes which would reflect the internal world of those who wear them. Since, in fact, there are many young people who do not eat meat, drink alcohol, don’t smoke or promote life without violence. I wanted to show it to the world, help young people demonstrate it by means of clothes.

“I was creating the collection that we showed in the project ‘New Names’ at the 28th Fashion Week while being inspired by street ‘prophets,’ looking for the truth everywhere. That’s where the minimalism in ornaments comes from, as well as big pockets for those who ‘keep their secrets in them,’ and no pockets in the clothes for those who’ve already found their truth and harmony.”