New additions were recently confirmed to the collaborative project between V-Art and the
DSL-collection, led by Sylvain and Dominique Levy. The interactive virtual space that will be
launched on 20th October in France during Paris+ par Art Basel, has been purpose built to
showcase the best and brightest of Ukranian contemporary art, fashion, music and culture. The
space also serves the purpose of both promoting and preserving Ukrainian art and culture
during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.
A key aspect of this event will be the inclusion of unique spaces that will flaunt items from the
current offerings of Ukrainian fashion and design. Six leading fashion brands from the Ukraine
will occupy these spaces with works from their collections, with an aim to raise awareness that
fashion is an integral aspect of Ukrainian modern culture, and that Ukraine has a wide-reaching
presence in the fashion market.
Add to this the fact that the Levy family has a long and prestigious background in the fashion
industry, being connected to a number of famous French fashion labels and brands, making it a
natural addition during the development of the Pavilion. Sylvain Levy explains:
“To give a voice to the fashion designers in this project means also a lot for us because
of our family background in the fashion business. All the more today fashion exhibitions
are common in all museums.
Haute couture and the fashion industry have entered the gaming industry, and we have
only just gotten started. We are witnessing a new era in retail, where our physical lives
will increasingly blend with our digital lives. For that reason, digital fashion has the
potential to shake up the fashion industry as we know it and make style items more
accessible to a broader audience.
Digital fashion is not just about clothes – digital fashion can be about anything you can
wear or use. From hats to shoes and jewellery accessories, the possibilities are endless”.
In response V-Art has recruited a number of leading players in the Ukrainian fashion world
starting with the Ukrainian Fashion Education Group (UFEG); the largest educational institution
in Ukraine that has a speciality in fashion and delivers close to 100 courses, lectures, workshops
and webinars on the subject. Their space will give viewers a teaser of five new works from the
collection developed by their students that will also be featured at the Digital Fashion Week in
New York this September.
One more space to keep your eyes peeled for is that furnished by our friends at Ukrainian
Fashion Week. The event was founded in 1997 and became the first prêt-à-porter fashion week
in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Fashion Week is held twice a year and delivers a heady mix of
international events in Ukraine as well as in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo and New York that aim
to promote the future of Ukrainian fashion across the globe. Iryna Danilevskaya, CEO and
co-founder of Ukrainian Fashion Week comments:
“Today, the digital dimension has become an alternative platform for popularizing fashion.
Thanks to this, digital fashion art began to appear, which is a new direction in modern
culture. Ukrainian Fashion Week has been supporting digital fashion projects of Ukrainian
designers for many seasons, understanding the importance of developing the Ukrainian
fashion industry in the digital space, especially during the war. Thus, the world will be able
to see as many works of talented Ukrainians as possible. Digital collections and digital
presentations are the formats that designers use when integrating into the digital world”.
From the world of women’s fashion we have Litkovska, a unique womenswear brand with stores
in most of the world’s main fashion hubs, including New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong.
Litovska makes use of the motto “there is no wrong side”, with their work frequently making use
of double-sided outerwear and reversed denim. They will be sharing pieces that are now
showing as part of their ‘Artisanal’ collection at the official womenswear fashion week in Paris.
This line makes use of fabric scraps, vintage apparel and leftovers from previous collections,
that are distributed to rural areas of Ukraine, where they are then re-woven into new fabric on
100-year-old authentic looms.
Women’s clothing brands are also represented by Ukraine’s popular women’s fashion house
BEVZA, founded in Kyiv by fashion designer Svitlana Bevza, in 2006. Represented in
boutiques all over the world, Svitlana’s brand became the first Ukrainian brand to make it to the
‘Vogue Talents’ finals in Milan and has also presented at New York Fashion Week. BEZVA will
exhibit both 2D and 3D virtual objects at the Pavilion.
Moving away from clothing, another Ukrainian brand being represented in the space is the work
of the Gunia Project, a brand of pieces for the home, inspired by traditional ethnic cultures. Each
collection is a unique combination of design thinking, deep ethnographic research and artistic
approach towards craftsmanship. Gunia will present several silk scarves from the FREEDOM
collection at the Pavilion, which also contains objects emblazoned with the words peace, brave,
liberty and freedom.
And finally, another institution rising to the challenge is the PUSHKA School, another leading
fashion design school in Ukraine known for its modern approach to clothing creation and an
alumni of established designers.
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