When the pandemic hit Ukraine in March canceling mass events, one of the country’s most successful clothing brands, ArtemKlimchuk, was caught off-guard.
ArtemKlimchuk’s once sought-after fancy dresses, often spotted at big functions, were no longer relevant to clients who now spend most of their time in domestic slippers.
“You open the order list and it says ‘canceled, canceled, canceled,’” the label’s founder and designer Artem Klimchuk told the Kyiv Post.
The pandemic battered the fashion industry this year.
Sales dropped by 40% for most labels. Some lost as much as 80% of regular revenue, according to the Ukrainian Fashion Week. Fabrics became impossible to buy as factories stopped working. Events that normally give brands visibility and attract customers kept getting postponed.
Ukrainian fashion has been buzzing far beyond the country’s borders in recent years. From milliner Ruslan Baginskiy to the denim masters behind Ksenia Schnaider, local designers have been spotted in the wardrobes of the world’s top taste-makers, grabbing international headlines.
Just as it started gaining momentum, the industry was hit by the pandemic’s changes.
Some young brands that hadn’t built a stable clientele before the crisis fell victims to the new reality.
Still, most of the brands survived. But to do so, the players of the Ukrainian fashion scene had to transform.
No season, no audience
The change started with the industry’s main event, Ukrainian Fashion Week, or UFW.
The biannual showcase has been a take-off platform for many Ukrainian designers throughout its 23-year history.
Iryna Danylevska, head of UFW says that the event’s primary goal has always been to support local designers. When the crisis fell, UFW stepped up to help.
One of the first innovative decisions was dropping fashion’s conventional seasonality. Its first event in the pandemic in August-September ran under the “no season” title. Instead of limiting brands to presenting spring-summer collections normally shown at that time, UFW allowed them to showcase any apparel they had to offer.
“No matter what collection you show, for current or next (season), you still stay afloat, you show your sustainability, stability, meaning your clients have greater confidence in you,” Iryna Danylevska, the founder and director of Ukrainian Fashion Week, told the Kyiv Post.
Models walk the runway during a fashion show by designer Darja Donezz at the Ukrainian Fashion Week in Kyiv on Feb. 6, 2021. The four-day event took place in the huge halls of the Mystetskyi Arsenal gallery, which stood almost empty during the online-only presentation. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
The warm weather allowed UFW to hold runway shows physically with most of the audience watching the live broadcast on the big screens outside. Half a year later, its next event scheduled for February didn’t offer the same privilege. So UFW experimented again.
The obvious decision would have been holding the event entirely online — like many other fashion weeks abroad — asking brands to film their own presentations and hand them in for screening. But that would have put an extra financial burden on designers already suffering from the crisis. So UFW set up its main location, Mystetskyi Arsenal gallery, and offered designers a team and equipment to film runway shows. The only difference — there was no live audience.
Another reason for what they called a “phygital” format, which combined physical shows and a digital audience, was the fact it could give more exposure through media attention that brands desperately needed. That’s why media were allowed access to the event.
“In the fashion industry, it’s very important to have a constant influence on clients,” Danylevska said. “Sales in the fashion business is a pretty emotional thing.”
The UFW’s shows reached over 370,000 views online, and Danylevska says, the format was praised by the foreign counterparts. And as UFW transformed to support local brands, it also set an example of flexibility and innovation for the fashion scene to follow.
Digitalization
The pandemic forced the world to go online and fashion was no exception.
When showrooms and stores had to close and fashion weeks postponed or canceled, brands focused on promoting themselves by digital means and selling online.
Some brands finally made time to develop their own websites, others polished their visual style on social media.
The highlights of the digitalization process were the elaborate film presentations that expanded designers’ creativity through a new medium.
At the UFW in February, a number of brands showcased collections through video. Ivan Frolov, the master of seductive apparel for women, got his models playing flight attendants wearing racy mini dresses and fitting jumpsuits. The “Love Airlines” collection film was shot on a plane, referring to an experience that has been missed much throughout the pandemic.
Another designer who made a video presentation was Klimchuk.
After experiencing a devastating drop in sales at the beginning of the pandemic, the brand reshaped its approach starting to craft clothes more casual rather than dressy.
Klimchuk’s recent collection “Modern Talking” features hoodies and sweatshirts, knitted vests, sweaters and blazers for both men and women. The brand couldn’t completely abandon its love for extravaganza, so there are also leopard print tops and golden sequins dresses.
“Modern Talking” was in many ways a reflection on the past year. “What is freedom? What is modern? What is needed?” the film asks at the start. Klimchuk says these were the questions he had discussed with friends while sitting in the kitchen during the pandemic.
“These were conversations about what clothes people actually need,” Klimchuk said.
The film was shot at the brand’s showroom in central Kyiv. In the video, models walk back and forth through a large blue door painted with storks. The cutting-edge film with mysterious electronic music in the background was an instant sensation.
“We received many good reviews from foreign media,” Klimchuk said. “Everyone’s waiting for the sale to open.”
Sustainability
Sustainability also shaped pandemic fashion. Customers didn’t need as much new apparel. Brands couldn’t afford to overproduce during the crisis.
“We fell out of trends for a year,” Daria Marusyk, head of communications and sustainability at UFW, told the Kyiv Post. “Brands, just like customers, started thinking about switching to high-quality timeless fashion.“
Shifting to sustainability is especially difficult for brands that have an established production but players like Litkovskaya that has been on the market for 12 years did so anyway. The brand launched the Artisanal line consisting entirely of pieces made from recycled garments from their previous collections. This new approach won Litkovskaya a Best Fashion Award in the Sustainable Fashion category.
Though Roussin is a younger brand that emerged in 2014, it has been dedicated to consciousness all along the way.
In 2020, the label shot a lookbook at a recycling plant in front of piles of garbage. Featuring capes and jumpsuits made from production leftovers, the avant-garde project raised awareness about overconsumption and showed how waste can be turned into art.
The brand’s recent collection “I Am” was crafted using recycled materials, mixed with their signature reflective fabric, leaving no waste.
Designer Sofia Rousinovich says that’s just the beginning. She is now working on patterns that would use the entire piece of fabric with no leftovers.
“It may be harder to sew, but this will leave as little waste as possible,” Rousinovich told the Kyiv Post.
The past year was a rollercoaster for Roussin. The brand lost orders for hundreds of pieces from foreign buyers, had its participation in Budapest Fashion Week postponed and its sales suffered. To release a new collection in February, the brand used a grant from the Ukrainian Cultural Fund.
Roussin’s “I Am” was an unusual show — it only featured one model changing street style outfits one by one and performing contemporary choreography on the UFW runway. The collection was a reflection on the pandemic’s isolation that brought not only loneliness but also an opportunity for self-discovery.
The break from the fast-fashion rhythm allowed Rousinovich to rethink her brand’s concept, logo and strategy.
“(We) were always in a hurry, competing with someone,” Rousinivich said. “And then there was this quiet time. And everything in my mind calmed down and became clearer.”
Danylevska says that those brands that invested time and effort in e-commerce and sustainability are already seeing an improvement in sales.
“The crisis hasn’t become a critical point that pushed them on the verge of existence,” Danylevska said.
“Ukraine, represented by Ukrainian Fashion Week, again showed its uniqueness and readiness to be groundbreakers.”
