Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days, one of Ukraine’s two Fashion Weeks, kicks off today. The program has featured Ukrainian designers who have reached significant levels of success outside of Kiev, including names like Julie Paskal, who now shows at Paris Fashion Week, as well as Anna October, who has sold at Browns in London.

But Ukrainian fashion, in the more traditional sense, has long had an influence on the runways. Take the peasant dress and blouse, the vyshyvanka: The Ukrainian folk-style costume made a local comeback after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and later became an international street style hit. Nearly a decade before, Jean Paul Gaultier featured iterations of the vyshyvanka in his bucolic Spring 2006 collection. Additionally, male models wore men’s vyshyvankas underneath suit jackets, a look that was popularized by 19th-century Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko. A few years later, Gucci included a version in its rocker-bohemian–themed Fall 2008 collection. Valentino’s Spring 2015 Couture collection is one of the most-well-known examples of Ukrainian influence on the runway. Although originally referred to as Russian inspired by designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the line boasted such traditional Ukrainian pieces as the zhupan—a woman’s coat—and a leibyk—a cropped embroidered vest.

Ukrainian motifs aren’t always based on traditional folk style, however. Fall 2013 was the season of the Asgarda, an all-female group based in the Carpathian Mountains. Prabal Gurung referenced the martial arts–practicing enclave in his military-themed collection, while Gareth Pugh also cited the subculture.

Today, Ukrainian influence on the runways shows no signs of slowing down. For Fall 2016, Sportmax presented dresses that resembled the borshivskaya sorochka, a vyshyvanka with bold embroidered stripes down the arms and thick pieces of fabric. An almost identical 19th-century version is tucked away in the archives of Kiev’s Ivan Honchar Museum: According to fashion editor and museum adviser Tatiana Solovey, the Sportmax collection was a “topic of conversation” on local newswires and Ukrainian Facebook groups. Even more recently, in the Dior Pre-Fall 2017 collection, “neo-folkloric” silver embroidery on a denim skirt was reminiscent of a Ukrainian motif seen on traditional wedding tablecloths called rushnyk.

Above, see how Ukrainian culture has long influenced runway collections in the West.

 

The post Ukraine’s Influence on the Runway Is Bigger Than You Think appeared first on Vogue.

Source: Vogue