UKRAINE: Ukrainian designers showcase their work during fashion week, while topless protesters hijack the catwalk

Record ID: 197253

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukrainian designers showcase their work during fashion week, while topless protesters hijack the catwalk
  • Date: 23rd October 2010
  • Summary: PEOPLE LEAVING VENUE
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Fashion,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7Y9XN5QMYT7OID9SJYP0Q25QZ
  • Story Text: Top Ukrainian fashion designers were showing their 2011 spring and summer collections this week, in the hope of inspiring potential clients and supporting their fledgling industry.
    Ukrainian Fashion Week, in its 13th year, attracts actors, politicians and socialites to the capital Kiev to see the work from designers, such as Elena Golets, Anastasiya Zaitseva and Viktor Anisimov.
    The fashions are meant to be "pret-a-porter," or ready-to-wear clothes that are made in factories and require little alteration, but critics say the fashion industry in Ukraine is so small that designers actually show goods that are produced on a tiny scale and thus very expensive.
    Designer Sergei Smolin presented a men's collection that mixed business and casual styles, with many of his models festooned in fedoras, on Tuesday (October 19) Smolin said that the week was a great opportunity to show and see new work, but expressed his frustration at the limited market for Ukrainian fashion.
    "Our designers are very talented, and in this I am convinced every season and every year because there are fresh, pretty ideas," he said
    "They are workaholics and make a lot of beauty, but the problem is that there is no fashion industry in Ukraine. Why can't we sell our work anywhere? Because there's no industry," he added.
    All the same, spectators said they enjoyed the show and appreciate the designers' workmanship.
    "Talented Ukrainian designers, I can definitely say, are reaching for the European standard, and I think even the world standard," said spectator Oleysya.
    Spectators were treated to a bit of controversy, when topless activists from the Ukrainian feminist cause Femen stormed the stage during a collection finale, carrying provocative signs.
    The signs that said "Model, don't go to the brothel" and "The catwalk is a meat market" were meant to call attention to sex trafficking issues in Ukraine.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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