Mad couturiers

The shows of the two most prominent men in the Ukrainian fashion business, Oleksii Zalevsky and Viktor Anisimov, turned out to be unusual, to put it mildly. Anisimov created a psychiatric hospital, while Zakrevsky “lost his heart” to HIV-positive people. This was the first day of the Ukrainian Week of Fashion.

PSYCHIATRIC WARD

Anisimov’s new collection was tender and feminine, featuring mostly beige tones. Gorgeous pleated skirts, short dresses, intricately-cut trousers and fur jackets, all teamed up with black accessories, are the designer’s vision of the 2007 spring-summer season. Models wore ribbons with large black flowers, while their dresses featured frills, appliques, and perplexing sketches - also in black. After the show the designer explained: “You know it’s like in Third- World movies - a test of madness. You come and say: I see a butterfly. And they tell you: off to the psychiatric ward,” Anisimov jokes.

But there is a grain of truth in every joke. According to Anisimov, his collection is based on “something other-worldly.” A dancer who appeared on the catwalk at the very beginning of the show played the role of a madman who had just left a psychiatric institution. The designer dedicated his creation to the “grand old people” of Ukrainian couture. “This collection is dedicated to all the somewhat crazy designers, who began doing something for us when they had no prospects whatsoever.”

Anisimov’s latest collection is not intended for stores. “Stores don’t need these Ukrainian designers,” he complains. He views his collection as more of an art project with no particular audience. He is taking part in the Week of Ukrainian Fashion simply for esthetic pleasure. “In Moscow, 90 percent of the designers are oriented to mass culture. There’s nothing to see there.”

FASHION AGAINST AIDS

Audiences have already gotten used to the hi-jinks and extravaganzas of designer Oleksii Zalevsky. So well before the beginning of the show, when the halls were suddenly full of models wearing mohawk haircuts decorated with syringes, and boys in drag with puffy hairdos and wearing high heels were dishing out condoms, nobody was all that surprised. Everybody simply thought: Zalevsky is preparing for the show. Within half an hour the visitors’ section was turned into a catwalk. During the show the walls were hung with large screens showing video clips. As it became clear later, the main theme of the designer’s collection is HIV/AIDS. “I addressed this theme about 10 years ago, and I recently saw some photos. So I thought, this is a burning issue,” Zalevsky says. Before getting down to creating the collection, he was in touch with a lot of AIDS activists, including Olena Franchuk, the founder of the ANTI-AIDS foundation, who has wanted to organize this kind of event for a long time.

Out of the fifty models that took part in the show, five were HIV-positive. “One girl, who has worked for me six years, told me she was HIV-positive. Naturally, I got a mild shock,” Zalevsky says.

Despite all the AIDS attributes, like red ribbons on suits, the models’ makeup, inflated condoms, and blood-filled syringes braided into models’ hair, the collection was still quite life-affirming. “More often than not, HIV and AIDS are associated with something negative, but here we stress the positive side, which is very important,” says Serhii, one of the HIV-positive models.

The collection featured mainly black, white, and red, and Zalevsky used some elements from the previous fall-winter collection, like white lace ribbons on a black and blue background featured in blouses, dresses, and skirts. This look is effective but somewhat hackneyed. “It is called a trademark style,” the designer explained. Although the collection looked quite elegant, especially a line of gorgeous evening dresses with trains trailing on the floor, the designer showed a trend that is all the rage this season: a mix of business and sport styles. For example, a jacket will suit a sweater with kangaroo pockets, and the hood will look right.