Ukraine Fashion Week: War veterans walk the runway in a powerful display of resilience | Fashion Trends

Ukraine Fashion Week highlights resilience amid war

“We wanted to show that Ukraine fashion “We are adapting the collection to society, for people with amputees who survived the war,” Bilous told The Associated Press. “We are showing that people are unbreakable: without limbs, they can be stylish. They need to be loved, respected and perceived as an integral part of society.” Bilous said he was happy to present his collection at home for the first time in three years. Fashion shows in London, Berlin, Vienna and other European cities had featured Ukrainian designs while the Kiev event remained closed.

As the models rotated through a spacious make-up and wardrobe room, they passed numerous reminders of the war: a series of portraits of uniformed servicemen who are part of the fashion industry and a display area of ​​military uniforms at the centre of the exhibition. A black jacket created by designer Maria Starchak bears an embroidered design of the drama theatre in Mariupol, southern Ukraine, where a large number of civilians were killed in a Russian airstrike of 2022The place was being used as an air raid shelter.

Models with prosthetics send a powerful message

Iryna Danylevska, co-founder and executive director of Ukraine Fashion Week, said the four-day event was aimed at supporting local industry and also reminding the world of the human cost of the war. “We are trying to keep Ukraine’s voice constantly heard in the world,” Danylevska told the AP.

“If people are tired of the way politicians talk, tired of images where houses are destroyed, where soldiers are injured, then this new information sends a new message,” he said. “It is a message that this is a country of talented people who are being destroyed just because they want to be Ukrainian. Shouldn’t we help them?”