Four famous Ukrainian designers have recently presented fragments of their art collections in the country’s capital. The fashion show was timed to the opening of the “YIN” exhibition in the M17 gallery. The exposition was created to draw attention to the turning point in the life of humanity. “The era of linear logic, black-and-white male chauvinism is about to end. The time of sensuality, intuitiveness and meditation is coming — the time of Yin,” stressed the curator Oleksii Tytarenko at the exhibition opening.
The art fashion show was opened by the creative duet of Ksenia Marchenko and the artist Volodymyr Kuznetsov. According to its authors the basic idea of the cruise collection 2011, part of the Spells art project, was making clothes that could be worn and would represent protection. Thus, formless tunics and blouses of semitransparent silk, chiffon and organza were decorated with embroidery amulets in the form of text messages. The latter, as Marchenko stressed, are authentic defensive spells, protecting their owners from evil forces, and bringing success, love and good fortune.
The second to present her collection was Zinaida Likhachova. An artist by essence and a designer by vocation, she presented her spring-summer 2011 collection VIdLunnia. Pure and chaste images, radiating worldwide harmony and love, were the collection’s inspiration, according to Likhachova. The collection “A little more modesty, sister!”, a fragment of which was demonstrated by Olena Ivanova at her fashion-show in M17, was totally dedicated to the creative work of the Austrian expressionist painter Egon Schiele. It’s interesting that being inspired by the famous artist’s works Olena painted a few elements of the collection herself.
The fashion show in M17 was concluded by the designer Larysa Lobanova, who presented the audience with a fragment of her collection dedicated to artists, masters and creators of fine art masterpieces. It is worth noticing that all prints from the collection are the designer’s ideas and works by the artist Yevhen Larionov, as well as children’s drawings, created by members of the charity action “Children for Children.”
“Clothes designers and artists always work on the same artistic field, creating a unified cultural space,” said the committee chairman and co-founder of Ukrainian Fashion Week Iryna Danylevska, “Thus, showing the four collections by Ukrainian designers at the opening of the ‘Yin’ art exhibition at the M17 Center for Modern Art is a first step toward a formal union of two art worlds.”
