From February 4 through 9, the Mystetsky Arsenal will host the milestone 40th season of the Ukrainian Fashion Week (UFW). Traditional spring dates have shifted because... Ukrainian designers are growing more integrated in the world fashion calendar.
“Success of Ukrainian designers in the international markets, their participation in professional fashion events, such as exhibitions, showrooms, fashion weeks all over the world have led to the need to move the UFW to an earlier date,” the UFW’s press service explained. They claim it will allow Ukrainian designers to start the season at home and, having shown their collections in Kyiv, move on to conquer markets of the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
A total of 65 events will be held over five days. Moreover, according to the organizers, the UFW will hold some seasonal shows in March as well.
As usual, the milestone 40th season of the UFW will be opened by designer Lilia Pustovit (POUSTOVIT). Speaking of other “mastodons” of the Ukrainian fashion industry, who participated in the first UFW show back in 1997, we will see collections of Oleksii Zalevskyi (ZALEVSKIY) and the design duo of Tetiana Zemskova and Olena Vorozhbyt (VOROZHBYT&ZEMSKOVA).
Also as usual, the UFW will be attended by foreign buyers, journalists, photographers, and specialists in other areas of fashion. This season, even more media publications will introduce the global fashion community to the collections of Ukrainian designers, among them Le21eme (US), Vogue.com (US), The Guardian (UK), Men’s Uno (China), South China Morning Post (South China), Vogue.ru (Russia), Business of Fashion (UK), GQ (UK), END Clothing (UK), Refinery29 (US), Untitled Magazine (UK), Calvert Journal (UK), Elle Korea (Korea), Capa Agency (international), Friday.az (Azerbaijan), Nargis Magazine (Azerbaijan), NOWFASHION (France), 1nstant.fr (France), ASVOF (France), Buro 24/7 (Russia), SNC Magazine (Russia), Modemonline.com (France), and Bleu Mode (France).
Exactly 20 years ago, Ukraine first announced to the world that the fashion industry was an integral part of our country. For 20 years, the UFW platform united, organized, and directed the Ukrainian fashion industry. “I am pleased that over these 20 years, we have created a large close-knit fashion community which has very effectively worked to make the country fashionable,” said the head of the UFW’s organizing committee Iryna Danylevska.
According to the organizers of the UFW, fashion is a platform that enables people to speak to the world. This idea is the core of the UFW’s 2017 advertising campaign. “We worked to make our new visual language reflect socially important issues that arise in our society. We also created the UFW campaign that speaks of tolerance, freedom, our dream to get rid of stereotypes and get the Ukrainian society rid of stereotypes,” Danylevska noted.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Ukrainian Fashion Week, a genuine post office will operate in the space of the Mystetsky Arsenal, where one will be able to send a postcard to any country of the world, order a “customized postage stamp” or take part in social projects “The Mail of Kindness” and “Fashion Postcard.”
The Mail of Kindness social art project aims to draw people’s attention to the tradition of warm communication and promote worldwide movement of post-crossing, that is, exchange of postcards.
Famous Ukrainian designers have already joined this project and spent two weeks creating mailbox designs, as the mailbox is a symbol of communication between people around the world, because it is through the mailbox that every letter or postcard starts its interesting world journey from person to person. The mailboxes will be launched on the UFW’s main location and subsequently installed in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine.
BACKGROUND
The Ukrainian Fashion Week (UFW) was first held in November 1997. It became the first professional fashion event in Eastern Europe. Since 1997, the Ukrainian Pret-a-Porter Week Fashion Seasons was held in Kyiv twice a year, founded by advertising and news agency Yanko, magazine Yeva, and the Serhii Byzov fashion house. In January 2006, organizing committees of the Ukrainian Pret-a-Porter Week Fashion Seasons and the Kyiv Podium International Festival officially declared their intent to combine the two events as the UFW. From that point on, Ukraine, like most countries, has had a single national fashion week.
