For Ukrainian model Lev Ulesov closing the Prada show at Milan Fashion Week should have been a career high in 2019. Today, the Brovary native, 21, finds no greater honour than joining Ukraine’s Territorial Defence as a medic.
Ulesov, who has modelled for Prada, BOSS, and Dolce and Gabbana, has defied the perception of luxury fashion as isolated from current events. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Ulesov immediately returned to Ukraine and signed up to defend his country when others in his place might have just remained abroad.
“I just knew that I should do this. My father and I went to the military recruitment office on February 25. They took him right away into the army and sent him to a military unit, and they sent me to the city’s territorial defence,” he told the morning show Snidanok Online.
“I’m doing my duty as a citizen of Ukraine,” Ulesov explained his commitment to stay in Ukraine to the end of the war. “This is a duty of a loving son because I can’t stand on the sidelines and watch as my country is being destroyed.”
Nazar Hrabar from Dnipropetrovsk Region is another model ready to help. He joined the Ukrainian army. And Ukrainian model Yevheniya Dubinova was also in Ukraine – but in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, she told Vogue magazine.
“Today, I know that I will stay till the end,” she said, committed to helping Ukraine win the war. “This is my country and I don’t want to lose it, even if these are really hard times. It is my responsibility to defend my country.”
Photo Caption 2: Model Nazar Hrabar joined the Ukrainian army.
(Photo Credit: Ukrainian Fashion Week Facebook)
Ukrainian fashion companies also have turned from readying spring collections to sewing for the army. Ukrainian Fashion Week organizers applauded on social media Kyiv designer Andre Tan’s team which produced and donated over 10,000 items to the army in just two weeks, including warm, comfortable and stylish fleece sweaters, pants, armoured vests and sleeping bags.
As Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the global fashion industry’s top spring events got underway in New York, Milan and Paris. Ukrainian models and designers travelled to Milan, Italy, in anticipation of a glamorous Fashion Week on February 22-28, but by mid-week their minds turned to family in bomb shelters back home.
The invasion caught the fashion industry off guard and hesitant to ostracise a growing luxury market in Russia. Vogue Ukraine’s Fashion Director Vena Brykalin criticized Milan Fashion Week for its slow reaction to the war. “I do think this industry is really tone deaf and Milan has shown that this week,” Brykalin told Evening Standard.
While Brykalin appreciated that designers can’t just cancel their shows, he insisted that “there are things you can do.”
In Milan, Giorgio Armani seemed to be the only designer to acknowledge events in Ukraine. The designer is close to Ukrainian football great Andriy Shevchenko who had a stellar career at FC Milan. Armani posted to Instagram that his latest collection at the Milan Week was shown in complete silence out of respect for the war in Ukraine. Further, the Armani Group donated $543,000 to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
In contrast, Paris Fashion Week, opening on February 28, produced some early high-level support for Ukraine and drew attention to the plight of Ukrainian refugees. The Paris organisers set the tone to recognize the war in Ukraine by dropping Russian designer Valentin Yudashkin from the programming.
“It became clear that he is an affiliate of the regime. As such, I consider that he doesn’t have a place in the calendar,” stated Ralph Toledano, president of the Paris Fashion Week’s organising body, Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, according to WWD.
In addition, some of the Week’s top international models like Bella and Gigi Hadid reacted on an individual level, informing their legion of social media followers about donating their Fashion Week earnings to help Ukraine.
“To watch my Ukrainian friends and colleagues working hard here in Europe, so close but so far from their families/friends/homes in Ukraine who are experiencing one of many brutal occupations and invasions happening right now in the world is a very emotional and humbling experience for me,” Bella posted to Instagram.
Georgian fashion designer and Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia had initially considered canceling his show. Instead, he decided to show support and raise awareness through symbolic gestures. “The war in Ukraine has triggered the pain of a past trauma I have carried in me since 1993, when the same thing happened to my home country and I became a forever refugee,” Demna wrote in a note that was placed with a Ukrainian flag on each guest seat. He also read a poem in Ukrainian by poet Oleksandr Oles.
Brykalin stressed the importance of such small gestures by big brands. “Businesses today can’t be operating in a vacuum,” he told CNN Style.
Kyiv fashion company Andre Tan sews fleece sweaters for Ukraine’s Zakarpattya Sonechko Battalion.
(Photo Credit: Andre Tan Facebook)
Following Paris Fashion Week, a wave of support for Ukraine came from luxury goods groups and individual fashion brands.
For example, the Kering global luxury group, which manages such labels as Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, posted support to Instagram, “In order to contribute to humanitarian efforts to bring aid and support to Ukrainian refugees, Kering will make a significant donation to the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.”
The group’s individual brands also backed Ukraine. Balenciaga was one of those showing Ukraine support in the invasion’s early days. Brykalin praised the brand’s efforts for setting the bar for others. Balenciaga also dedicated its social media channels entirely to Ukraine relief efforts and made a donation to the World Food Programme.
Using its voice, Vogue Ukraine posted a lengthy statement in early March to rally major fashion companies to exit the Russian market. Luxury goods were not included in the first round of sanctions.
“In the wake of unprecedented military aggression from the Russian Federation and growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Vogue UA urges all international fashion and luxury conglomerates and companies to cease any collaborations on the aggressor’s market effective immediately.”
As sanctions mounted, fashion industry companies and brands decided to follow other industries and leave the Russian market. Luxury goods holding company Richemont, owner of Hermes and Cartier, was one of the first to temporarily close stores and cease operations in Russia. Kering, LVMH, Chanel, Burberry, Prada and others followed suit by closing stores and suspending all operations.
“The LVMH company stands in solidarity with Ukraine and closed 124 of its brands stores in Russia,” the company said in its Instagram statement.
Cosmetics giant L’Oreal Paris, which threw its support behind its 326 Ukrainian employees, went a step further. “Regarding our activity in Russia, we are fully aligned with the position of the French and European authorities. We have decided to temporarily close all our own stores and directly operated counters in department stores and to suspend all industrial and national media investments. We have also taken the decision to temporarily close our own brand e-commerce sites in Russia.”
Fashion brands initially hesitated to suspend operations in Russia fearing market loss. But there are several reasons why pulling out now makes business sense. Logistically, operations would be complicated with companies like DHL suspending deliveries and e-commerce sites not filling orders to Russia. Sanctions would make restocking stores in Russia difficult, while online sales will be impacted by Russian banks being cut off from the international monetary exchange system. From the moral perspective, companies have to consider social backlash in more lucrative markets for continuing to do business in Russia. As more information emerges about Russia’s military misdeeds in Ukraine, fashion brands may be willing to absorb these short term losses out of compassion for the immense destruction in Ukraine.
Model Bella Hadid is donating to Ukraine relief.
(Photo Credit: Bella Hadid Instagram)
Luxury brands influence the thoughts and wallets of the global elite and its followers. They also have a trickle-down effect on fast fashion companies and their consumers worldwide. By supporting Ukraine the fashion industry is using its powerful voice to do the right thing, which is not always in fashion in business.
