Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Ukrainian Designers FTW!

I meant to do this post for a while now. Refinery29 recently did a post on seven emerging European designers, and among them they mentioned Sasha Kanevski. Ignoring their strange wording ("it’s the fusion of the modern feminist meeting the ultra-hip Eastern European cousin" -- what is wrong with this sentence?!), I was really glad to see his name. While his esthetic is a bit too youthful for my middle-aged self, I do admire a lot of his clothes, especially knits:



A tad Alexander Wang with a more avant-garde/military sensibility, well cut and clean-lined.

However, Kanevski is only the tip of the iceberg. In recent years, Ukrainian design really has been emerging as a great force, with many tending toward avant-garde but with frequent nods to classic cuts, with feminine estehtic that still managed to skew away from overtly sexualized. In other words, gorgeous stuff.

So I wanted to mention a few of my favorites. First, Fedor Vozianov. Talk about Scandinavian minimalism/clean-lined avant garde that still manages to stay wearable and dare I say pretty?




Yeah, I do. And of course I do especially dig the grey, white and black palette with occasional corals and yellows. And the shoes shaped like paws. Oh heck, just everything!

Then there are Natalia Kamenskaya and Olesya Kononova, the designers of Kamenskaya-Kononova. Their designs are more traditionally ladylike, with rich and sophisticated colors, refined midi silhouettes, and shredding.




Then there are vivid colors of Nadya Dzyak:



Small unexpected details and interesting colorblocking make this traditionally drapey silhouette not quite so.

And last but not least, Liliya Litkovskaya. I just am so enamored of her severe and beautiful esthetic.



I am so impressed with this group of designers. I hope that for some of you this is new info. There is really nothing more I like than introducing people to creative minds I admire. Now, if I could only get Tilda Swinton to wear Vozianov and Litkovskaya!

1 comment:

TheShophopper said...

Interesting! It's a pity there is rarely any international attention to designers outside of France/Italy/the UK/the USA. These all look very worthwile.