In the world of fashion, cities like New York, Tokyo and Paris are associated with cutting-edge designs and sophisticated styles. Kyiv, however, is seldom mentioned as a fashion hot spot. Even so, the fashion industry in Ukraine is coming of age.
Ukraine’s only professional pret-a-porter show, Sezony Mody (Fashion Seasons) happens twice a year, exhibiting new collections by Ukraine’s leading designers. For three years now, Sezony Mody has been an indicator of the Ukrainian fashion market for businessmen, critics and customers.
In the early days, Sezony presented everything from student experiments to mature designers and was heavily criticized for heterogeneity. But gradually the shows have emerged as a high-quality pret-a-porter, and both 1999 shows were deemed a success.
‘Today Sezony Mody finally resembles pret-a-porter shows in the rest of the world,’ said Alla Putintseva, a spokeswoman for the show’s organizer Eva Magazine.
According to Putintseva, Sezony Mody is a mirror of the fashion industry.
‘Three years ago we showed the best that there was. Today, those designers who were with us from the very beginning grew into solid companies and made their names famous,’ she said.
Sezony Mody veterans Serhy Byzov, Liliya Pustovit and Viktoria Gres have been with the show from the very beginning and have never missed a show. Today, all three are considered Ukraine’s leading designers, and Kyiv’s most stylish buy their designs right off the catwalk.
Byzov, Gres and Pustovit are, by all accounts, successful. But another decade is sure to pass before the majority of Ukrainians stop buying foreign garb at bazaars and start wearing domestically produced clothes from Ukrainian Versaces and Trussardis. One exception is male fashion designer Mikhail Voronin, who owns 25 stores throughout Ukraine and controls 55 percent of the domestic suit market.
The post-Soviet infatuation with imported clothing has finally passed, and today Ukrainians are ready to buy garments from local producers.
‘Today, Ukraine’s emerging class would rather buy one item at an expensive boutique than a heap of clothes at the bazaar,’ said fashion critic Zoya Zvinyatskovska. ‘And because the foreign boutique prices are almost twice as high as in the West, Ukrainians are willing to buy Ukrainian.’
‘Domestically manufactured clothes from Ukrainian designer labels
