Ukrainians In The Fashion Industry Join Forces To Share Information, Resources & More

For six days now, Ukraine has been facing a Russian invasion. Many Ukrainian designers, stylists and writers who have chosen to remain in the country have spent their nights in bomb shelters or underneath parking lots. Despite the situation, the creative community has been banding together to share information or donate to causes, whether they are in Ukraine or not.

Some have chosen to stay in Ukraine and do what they can to help from there. Svitlana Bevza, who just showed her autumn/winter collection at New York Fashion Week, chose to stay in Kyiv and is posting donation links on her Instagram (we had been on FaceTime and she hung up because of an explosion). She and stylist and founder of label Bettter Julie Pelipas, who evacuated to Greece, have mobilised to call upon fashion retailers to boycott Russian products. Designer Anna October has taken shelter in a forest, still trying to evacuate her team and their families. Artist Masha Reva is currently in the western part of Ukraine, as is ceramicist Nadiia Shapoval, taking cover, both of whom are sharing information with their community.

Some who are close to the Ukrainian border are trying to help those who want to cross into another country. Consultant and founder of glove company Tender & Dangerous Luka Vynnychok, who was born in Ukraine and now lives in Poland, is bringing supplies, including medical materials and food, to points in Krakow. “We went to the refugee office because we had an Airbnb rented for our family, and they didn’t come because it was too long at the border,” says Vynnychok. “We wanted to give it to someone else in need.” Ukrainian model Tanya Ruban, who has lived in Barcelona for the past several months with her two children, is organising drives at her children’s school to gather supplies, which will then be transported to the Ukrainian and Polish border for children and mothers who have crossed over. “I’ll start from one school, and hopefully others will join,” she says.

Thanks to the power of social media, anyone can share resources, fundraise, or offer a hopeful message. LVMH prize-nominated designer Anton Belinsky offered a message of peace with a picture of his hands in a peace sign as a plume of black smoke rose from a field next to his house. In London, Ukrainian founder Olya Kuryshchuk of 1Granary, an organization that promotes burgeoning talent, has been posting messages from Ukrainians around the world and directing the fashion community to charities, pro-bono legal services, or awareness posts for those attempting to leave Ukraine. Just today, she released a letter to the fashion industry titled “Fashion Unites Against War” asking for the community to use their platforms to raise awareness.

Others have used their platform to fundraise for specific charities. In New York, Ukraine-born Yelena Yemchuk has started an art sale to raise funds for a range of charities in her bio. (Buyers can choose which cause their proceeds go to). Designer Natalie Fedner of Los Angeles, who came to America over 30 years ago as a refugee from Kyiv, is fundraising for HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society).

Two women in Paris, stylist Anastasiia Gutnyk and former Vogue Ukraine editor Sonia Kvasha of Baby Productions, have both been working to disseminate useful information among their friends, family, and broader circles. Gutnyk, who grew up in Lviv, and has been living in Paris for three years, has been working tirelessly for five days on no sleep to help her homeland. “I’m on the phone all the time,” she says. “I’m going to the protests. Everyone is doing everything to reach others. I know where all my friends are [in Ukraine]. I know where all the bombs fall. I know all of this. If someone needs to get from one city to another, we tell everyone what we know and our information.”

Kvasha, who grew up in Kyiv, says that she and her friends and colleagues have been working on a micro and macro scale to help one another and their loved ones back home. Kvasha is currently in roughly 80 group chats that are tackling different needs. “Someone needs €100, someone needs a car, and someone [wants] to do an initiative with art,” she says. Currently, she is working with Pelipas to find companies that provide deadstock clothes to Ukrainian refugees. “When a rocket is in your flat, you don’t think about what you put on. It is still cold. People are leaving in what they are [wearing], and some people have nothing to change into,” she says. “My friend’s 70-year-old parents forgot everything because of the pressure.” Ultimately, she emphasises that everything counts, no matter how small. “Really it is whatever you can do, you can do. It is baby steps,” she says. “There is no ‘you’. It is a collective effort.”