Spring Summer 2016: The Pearls of Ukrainian Fashion Week

Eastern Europe's fashion industry still has a long way to go to match the West, but Ukrainian Fashion Week is an event that successfully brings these two worlds closer together. It was established in 1997 and was the first professional fashion event in the whole of Eastern Europe. It now takes place twice a year and attracts the attention of many renowned designers.

Every year, over 40 talented participants, 150 mass media representatives, and 25,000 guests, gather to celebrate the new curve in the development of the Ukrainian fashion industry. This year, the event took place from 14-20 October. The guests were treated with a selection of fashion shows, presentations, and installations from leading Ukrainian designers. The program of the show included some very interesting surprises for guests, who got to visit various locations and see some of the exquisite special projects developed for the Spring/Summer 2016 season.

This show always attracts the most beautiful Ukrainian models who have managed to garner international acclaim, and one of them is selected to star in UFW’s campaign. This season’s star was Victoria Sasonkina, who currently lives in New York but continues to work with the agencies “Art Podium” and “L-models” in Ukraine. In 2008, the beautiful Victoria was labelled "The Muse" by Steven Meisel – one of the world's most popular fashion photographers. In 2010, Victoria managed to land a place on the list of the "Top 20 Global Models" (a true feat for a young girl from Ukraine).

Sasonkina’s looks for the Ukrainian Fashion Week campaign were selected by renowned stylist, Veniamin Brykalin. He chose the looks from BEVZA, POUSTOVIT, LITKOVSKAYA, ELENAREVA, and FROLOV. The shots were taken at Studio 1 – the most professional photo shooting location in Kiev. The photographer for this campaign was Ksenia Kargina – a talented young girl who creates truly vivid and stylish fashion pictures. Last but not lease, the other members of the campaign production team included Svitlana Rymakova, a renowned make-up artist, and Pavlo Lotnyk, a hairstylist virtuoso. 

Congratulations to the whole team for making Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016 another success!