Ukrainian Fashion Week (Ukrainian: Український Тиждень Моди; UFW) is a clothing trade show held semi-annually at the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is held during the spring/summer and autumn/winter each year. UFW has been held since 1997 and was mainly founded by Irina Danilevskaya.[1]
History
A shot of the fashion week during the spring-summer show in 2020.
The first Ukrainian Fashion Week was held in 1997 at the Actor's House in Kyiv as a ready-to-wear show called "Fashion Seasons".[2] It was conceived after designer Sergei Bizov came to Irina Danilevskaya, the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine "Eva", and asked about doing a Ukrainian Fashion Week, similar to London Fashion Week.[3] In 1997, she finally conceived the idea alongside the founder of RIA Yanko Nechyporuk.[3] In total, there were 13 brands and designers present for the first year.[4] In 1998, AVON became the general partner and sponsor of the fashion week.[4] In 2000 the show started allowing younger models to walk the show, and the following years, political designs started to be added to the show.[4]
In 2005, the name of the show was changed to Ukrainian Fashion Week. Danilevskaya stated the decision to change the name coincided with what the council wanted it to represent: to represent the work of Ukrainian designers and start to invite foreign media and other projects to the show.[5] It was briefly held at Pushkin Park in Kyiv in the late 2000s to 2010.[6]
After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the event started to be limited but returned for 2 years since 2022.[7] Previous editions since the start of the invasion were held as the "Support Ukrainian Fashion" in London, Paris, and Copenhagen.[8] The 2024 edition, the first edition to be held since the invasion, included more than 50 Ukrainian brands like Frolov.[9]
Attendance
The week has typically had over 50 designers and pulls in around 20,000 attendees.[10]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fashion weeks.
