"Resistance Is in Our Blood”: 5 Ukrainian Designers Reflect on Their New Reality a Year on From the Russian Invasion
Almost a year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, giving rise to a conflict that has destabilized the lives of millions and led to excruciating hardship as Ukrainian civilians work—whether at home or abroad—to keep their families safe and livelihoods intact. For the fashion world in Ukraine—a diverse and highly skilled industry with specialisms in luxury, bridal and outerwear—it has been a time of recalibration, rehabilitation and resistance, as brands have been forced to adapt and pivot amidst incredible hardship. Blackouts scupper clothing production, power cuts prevent communication and creatives reel at the decimation of their country’s cultural touchstones and landmarks.
But even amidst the pain and uncertainty, strength shines through. “Inside we are all stronger than before,” says Yana Olenich, founder of the eponymous womenswear label Olenich. “Unity and resistance is in our blood.” A year on, five designers reveal what their personal and professional realities look like now.
Matt Healy1/5Gudu
For Gudu creative director Lasha Mdinaradze—who grew up in Georgia, but calls Ukraine his fashion home—his day-to-day (gym, breakfast, office) doesn’t look all that different. It is, says Mdinaradze, the emotional state of the country that has changed dramatically. Maintaining a sense of routine has become imperative to help him psychologically withstand the stress of seeing Kyiv—its art, its raves and the people he finds endlessly inspiring—torn apart.
“It is still difficult for me to come to terms with blackouts that do not allow me to plan work, but when you understand the front-line conditions of Ukrainian defenders, these problems no longer seem so serious,” shares the designer, who has poured his energy into making smart upcycled denim and patchwork pieces that tell the country’s stories. “In Ukraine, we now joke that we have completely overcome procrastination. You do not have time for long reflections—everything needs to be done here and now.”
The decision to remain in Kyiv was a no-brainer for Mdinaradze—“how could I go to a safe place and tell my team what to do?”—who believes that Gudu’s united front has become its greatest strength as the Ukrainian fashion industry makes waves in an international market. “New buyers have paid attention to us, new customers have appeared,” he says of his label’s expansion, helped in part by presenting Gudu’s work in New York and Budapest. “What scared us in February brings a smile today. We have goals and we are moving towards them.”
Matt Healy2/5Ienki Ienki
Dima Ievenko, this seven-year-old outerwear label’s founder, has been stationed in Milan since the outbreak of the war, and other members of his team work peripatetically around the globe, living in Europe, the US and Canada. “Looking back, I think we did a great job of restructuring ourselves, and we still have the same number of employees,” Ievenko says of his label, which specializes in optimistically prismatic and technical puffer jackets and has even outfitted members of the National Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine. “It was a scary time, not just because of the threat of violence, but also for the strength of the business.”
Before the war, Ienki Ienki was based in Kyiv, but the brand has now relocated its manufacturing facilities to areas of the country less at risk of physical threat, Ternopil and Cherkasy. In October 2022, the brand’s Ukraine-based employees began dealing with the fallout of Russian-inflicted country-wide power outages. “We had around two to three hours of electricity a day in our factories,” Ievenko says. “This could mean an hour in the morning and then waiting all day in the dark for another hour of electricity later in the evening. We’ve now bought and installed generators that work off diesel fuel.” For Ievenko, resistance is symbolized by a renewed commitment to creation. “This is our battlefield,” he says.
Matt Healy3/5Six
The biggest shift for Kyiv-based Julia Bogdan, the woman who Olena Zelenska looks to for easy-chic tailoring, has been moving private fittings online after her clients fled a country at war. For a designer who learnt her trade by watching her craftsman father, not being able to interact with her loyal customers, who view Six’s trademark business-cool suits as a form of armor against the world, has been tricky.
It took two months to adapt to a new digital reality and set up tech-first atelier skills to allow Bogdan to deliver the bespoke nature of Six pieces from behind a computer screen. “I am very proud of my team for their spirit and bravery,” says Julia of her workforce, who have all remained in Kyiv despite the conflict. This united spirit has meant Bogdan has not lost a single member of her atelier staff and all orders have been delivered on time—something not all Ukrainian businesses have been able to hope for, and which has given Bogdan a new sense of perspective about Six’s place in the fashion industry.
“We realised that we are worthy to be represented in Europe and we have a lot to show,” says the focused businesswoman, who is using her current situation as a platform to raise awareness of Six’s expert sewing, via pop-ups in London and Paris. “We feel seen, heard and respected,” asserts Bogdan, who hopes for the same for her peers. “I strongly believe that it is just the beginning for the Ukrainian fashion industry. Now it is the time of discoveries and we can’t miss this chance.”
Matt Healy4/5Olenich
Following the outbreak of war in February 2022, Odessa-born Yana Olenich embarked on a treacherous 300-mile solo drive in her Range Rover, travelling for three days through military checkpoints alone to a safe haven in Greece. Homesick and alienated, she returned to Ukraine that summer, where she is now stationed in Kyiv, the city where her seven-year-old eponymous womenswear label’s design atelier is based. “The steadfast and invincible energy of the capital has drawn me back the most,” Olenich explains via email—poor connectivity and power cuts in the country make it impossible to speak via phone call. “I felt the urge to be with my team, family and friends. I feel obligated to share the experience of sorrow and joy with them, with the same commitment as a marriage.”
Olenich is learning to view the challenges thrown at her and her team – like the prospect of designing a collection by candlelight, or spending long winter days without heating or running water – in a positive light. “They make me stronger,” she says. “It feels like a superpower.” If the brand’s fall 2022 collection was an exploration of homesickness, Olenich’s spring 2023 offering, “reflects the relief of arrival”. Produced entirely in her home country, with breathtaking campaign images shot in the Kuialnyk Estuary near Odessa, the collection is dedicated to Ukrainian handcraft and features traditional handmade embroidery from the Poltava region, imagined an ultra-modern monochrome colour palette.
Olenich has big plans for 2023. “Living in your native country is very fulfilling despite all the difficulties we are facing as a nation. We have been bold enough to decide we need a new adventure, a new project which will be an extension of the Olenich universe in some way.”
Matt Healy5/5Masha Popova
Since Masha Popova left Odessa in February 2022—the seaside Ukrainian city she lived in since the age of 11, after growing up “hanging out by a railway depot” in the industrial town of Podilsk—the womenswear designer has achieved international acclaim. In September 2022, she staged her debut catwalk show at London Fashion Week, a darker, grungier and motocross-inflected take on her denim-swathed Y2K aesthetic, that drew on the rage-fuelled melancholic mood she encountered after the outbreak of war.
“The show was amazing! Buyers and press start taking you really seriously,” Popova—who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2020, and has legions of Insta It-girl fans including Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid—enthuses. She now has an impressive roster of stockists, keen to snap her her skilfully warped and distressed denim, metallic biker jackets and bleached micro miniskirts, with 13 global retailers including, for spring 2023, Dover Street Market. Popova returned to Odessa for the first time at the start of this year, intending to spend several weeks with her family and to work on the production for her upcoming fall 2023 collection, a development and evolution of her current offering. “My parents have become very used to the conflict now,” she says.
