One year on: How are Ukrainian designers coping?

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. “As I’m speaking with you, there are air sirens,” says fashion designer Lilia Litkovskaya, from her studio in Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. “My team are very brave people but I am worried that they are not afraid. I asked everyone to go to the bomb shelter, but everyone continued to work.” A year on since the current conflict in Ukraine erupted, designers from the country are still battling to keep their brands afloat despite waning global attention and support. Some are resolutely preparing to take part in upcoming fashion weeks, while others are focusing on maintaining production — and jobs — in Ukraine. Most agree on the need to keep the horrors of the ongoing war front of mind in the West. After the Russian invasion in February 2022, support for Ukrainian designers rolled in from the global fashion community. Leading companies, including Chanel, Hermès, Kering, LVMH and Nike, moved fast to close down their operations in Russia. Publications spotlighted Ukrainian designers and creatives, while fashion councils across the world organised showcases of Ukrainian talent. People outside of Ukraine have also shown their support by buying from its homegrown fashion brands. “There has been a significant boost in overseas orders for Ukraine-made clothes. Deliveries to foreign countries have grown rapidly, encouraged by affordable tariffs set by delivery operators for the goods imported from Ukraine,” says Deloitte Ukraine’s Oleksandr Yampolskyi. However, maintaining public interest in a grinding and attritional conflict has proved a challenge. “It would be naive to say the media pendulum hasn’t swung away from Ukraine,” says Vogue Ukraine fashion director Venya Brykalin. “We knew that interest would fade as other things happened, and we have to be pragmatic about that. We have to make people pay attention.” “It’s important for us to continue to talk about the war,” agrees Ivan Frolov, founder of womenswear brand Frolov. “It’s lost attention, but people are still dying everyday.” He will show under the Ukrainian Fashion Week banner on the final day of London Fashion Week on 21 February, alongside fellow Ukrainian brands Ksenia Schnaider and Paskal. LFW organiser the British Fashion Council provided the venue, as well as the production, free of charge. “We are proud to be able to offer them our BFC Newgen Show Space to continue to raise awareness both of these brilliant brands but also to keep momentum going and ensure that public attention remains focused on the horrific impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having on the country’s population one year on,” says BFC’s Caroline Rush. “As the 52nd season of Ukrainian Fashion Week cannot take place in Kyiv, it is incredibly important that we play our part in ensuring that Ukrainian brands can continue to promote their collections.” Keeping business flowing The war continues to shape the daily working lives of Ukrainian designers and creatives. Litkovskaya is currently preparing for her Paris Fashion Week presentation on 1 March. She had to invest in a good-quality generator so her team can have hot water, heating and electricity to complete production. Vogue Ukraine is gearing up to publish its first print issue since the war broke out. Brykalin has been working on it from Paris, alongside organising fundraising exhibitions to celebrate Ukrainian talent. “Around half of our team are in Kyiv,” he says. “They have a lot of blackouts, so people often have their cameras off on Zoom or lose connection suddenly. Nobody teaches you how to navigate these things.” Hat designer Ruslan Baginskiy was one of many hit hard by the conflict. “Every single part of our business has gone through tremendous metamorphosis,” says Baginskiy, who moved his entire 100-strong team — and some of their families — from Kyiv to his hometown of Lviv in western Ukraine one week after the Russian invasion (Lviv became a safe haven for many fleeing the conflict thanks to its relative distance from the Russian border). “We found housing for everyone, we managed to relocate equipment, quite literally under air strikes, and find a new space for the production. We had to rethink the way we communicate with our RB family via social media. Rethink logistics, rethink projects, rethink what we are about and find the strength and motivation to go on. I am happy to say somehow we did.” His brand’s income was close to zero for the first three months of the war because of logistics, payment and production issues. His store in Kyiv was closed for safety reasons. “Our SS22 orders were ready to be dispatched by the end of February and we were preparing the documents, but then the war started and it became simply impossible to ship the goods for a couple of weeks,” he says. “I’m truly thankful to all our partners who accepted the orders with a huge delay, and who continue to support us no matter what. We missed the Autumn/Winter 2022 market in Paris obviously, but all our long-term partners placed the order, and it was such an incredible gesture. They believed in us and we did our best to meet their expectations.” Baginskiy has looked for any opportunities to keep business flowing. From May to June 2022, he opened a store in Lviv, then reopened his Kyiv flagship. In December, he opened a pop-up in the ski resort of Bukovel. It’s a challenging market: 50 per cent of Ukrainians have reduced their spending on clothing compared to the pre-war period, diverting their spending to helping the national cause, according to Deloitte. This has been partly offset by the fact that European luxury and mass-market retailers such as Zara are not operating — giving a boost to homegrown brands, says Maria Mokhova, owner of Ukrainian PR agency White Rabbit, whose goal is to support and mentor Ukrainian designers through the crisis. The company launched a mentorship scheme in 2022, helping brands like artisanal label Gaptuvalnya to rebrand and build international awareness by telling their stories about how they’re overcoming challenges. Navigating production in Ukraine Many Ukrainian designers are conflicted about the idea of moving production outside of their home country. Litkovskaya has considered relocating — she has a small production space in Paris — but she’s worried about her team. “My team here [in Kyiv] need this work. This is a big support to them and their families, and I see happiness in their eyes that they have work. For me, when I come back to Kyiv it’s my personal inspiration. I feel roots here, the place where I was born.” The problems are practical. “For the business it’s really hard because when it comes to deliveries, customs, declarations, the laws are changing all the time,” she says. “The foreign companies who provide services change the [terms and] conditions everyday, so we have to adjust.” Similarly, Frolov made the decision to keep production in Kyiv despite the stresses. “Our main goal is to save our companies in Ukraine; to save employees; to save work in places for them; and to save and to help our country trade [and] support our economy,” he says. “For me, if you [move production] abroad, it means that you are not a Ukrainian brand anymore.” Designer Ksenia Schnaider, co-founder of Ksenia Schnaider, decided to keep production in Ukraine in order to protect her team’s livelihoods. “Of course, it’s difficult to manage. We still have blackouts and some shellings from time to time. It’s still very challenging but we’re trying to work when it’s safe.” After her London Fashion Week presentation, Schnaider hopes to secure showroom space in Paris. “We’re still in negotiations with a few showrooms because, for us, it’s really difficult to pay the full price right now,” she says. Practical challenges hit neighbouring countries, too. Hungarian brand Nanushka faced severe supply chain disruption throughout 2022, says CEO Pèter Baldaszti. Many of its suppliers in eastern Hungary employed Ukrainian workers, who would commute across the border. “We had to cancel almost half of the pre-Autumn and the Autumn/Winter season because factories could not keep manufacturing the same quantities,” he explains. “Our issues cannot be compared to those of Ukrainian people, but that was an unexpected knock-on effect.” Ukrainian designer Tatyana Chumak showed her brand TG Botanical at Copenhagen Fashion Week for the first time in early February, using funding from Zalando’s sustainability award. She produces all her garments in Ukraine, despite the power cuts and poor internet connection. “We started 20 years ago and it’s important to remain in Ukraine,” the designer says. “We all feel the pressure of the situation, but [the opportunity to show in Copenhagen] proves that it was worth it.” Chumak and her fellow designers are gradually finding a way through the forest of challenges. Like all the Ukrainian people, they have become used to adversity. “Living with war throws new challenges at you constantly, so reinvention is a daily process,” says Baginskiy. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More on this topic: Ukraine’s fashion community: Fighting the information war Three weeks into war, Ukraine’s fashion creatives reflect How Ukraine’s top luxury department store adapted to war

Make better business decisions

Make better business decisions