As part of the project Ukrainian Fashion Games in Peloponnesus, Greece, Ukrainian designers presented their creative views of Greece. Light and vivid images coupled with bright summer colors dominated in the collections created by designers who are already well-known in Ukraine but not yet so popular in the rest of the world: Anna Bublyk, Olena Dats, Oleksiy Zalevsky, Svitlana Savorona, and the designer duets — Tetiana Zemkovska and Olena Vorozhbyt, and Natalia Kamenska and Olesia Kononova. The participants and the organizers of the event told about their achievements and impressions at the press conference in Kyiv.
About 200 guests came to see the works of Ukrainian designers, among them Valerii Tsibukh, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to Greece, mayors of the neighboring cities, journalists from local authoritative periodicals, and Greek fashionistas. Iryna Danylevska, head of the Ukrainian Fashion Week organization committee, said that the interest of journalists to the event was proof that the mission was completed, as they say.
“We have to improve Ukraine’s image in the world,” says Danylevska. “We have to take steps to win respect for our country and make it interesting to the rest of the world, so that Europeans can see how talented, beautiful, and civilized their neighbors are.”
Every designer presented ten images. Furthermore, six dresses that were specially made by Ukrainian designers and inspired by Greek themes made up a mini-collection entitled “The Goddesses of Hellas,” which became a sign of thankfulness for Greece’s hospitability. Zalevsky was the traditional director of the fashion show. According to his plan, models had to walk on the little wooden bridge to get to the main hall where the audience was.
For the Ukrainian Fashion Games–Peloponnesus project the designers created new images which are not a part of their spring-summer collections. Young designers Kamenska and Kononova showed preference to light dresses in the romantic style, which, in their view, reflected the spirit of Greece. Savorona, another young designer, who has not so long ago presented her first collection within the framework of the New Names project at the Ukrainian Fashion Week, created her ‘Greek’ collection within two weeks. She says that she is full of impressions from her previous visit to this country.
“In some way looks a Greek dress looks like a sea web, because for me Greece is first of all associated with the sea,” says Savorona.
For the Zemskova and Vorozhbyt duet this was the first visit to Greece. However, the owner of a local chain store got interested in their collection and promised to come see their fashion show in Kyiv. Thus the Ukrainian Fashion Games is adding the commercial dimension.
“Not every event results in business propositions, and you never know who you are going to meet in a new country,” says Danylevska. “That is why we try to use every opportunity to show to Ukrainian designers how the fashion industry operates in different countries of the world and, conversely, show them to the world.”
Within the framework of the Ukrainian Fashion Games project a delegation of Ukrainian designers has already visited Delhi, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Prague, Washington, and Paris. Visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg and also the participation in the 2008 Pr t- -Porter Paris international exhibit were a great business success for the Ukrainian designers. (They plan on coming to Paris again next September.)
The organizers of the Ukrainian Fashion Games, the Ukrainian Fashion Week and the Ukrainian Fashion Council, are, as usual, ambitious. Danylevska told The Day that they are now holding negotiations with one of the world’s most influential Fashion Weeks in New York. The project that requires serious organizational efforts and considerable financial investments may be realized within one year. Another great project is a fashion show of Ukrainian designers in Berlin, the most open city for new names.
