New additions were recently confirmed to the collaborative project between V-Art and the dslcollection, led by Sylvain and Dominique Levy. The interactive virtual space that will be launched on 20th October in France during Paris+ par Art Basel, has been purpose built to showcase the best and brigtest of Ukranian contemporary art, fashion, music and culture. The space also serves the purpose of both promoting and preserving Ukrainian art and culture during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. 

A key aspect of this event will be the inclusion of unique spaces that will flaunt items from the current offerings of Ukrainian fashion and design. Six leading fashion brands from the Ukraine will occupy these spaces with works from their collections, with an aim to raise awareness that fashion is an integral aspect of Ukrainian modern culture, and that Ukraine has a wide-reaching presence in the fashion market. 

Add to this the fact that the Levy family has a long and prestigious background in the fashion industry, being connected to a number of famous French fashion labels and brands, making it a natural addition during the development of the Pavilion. Sylvain Levy explains: 

“To give a voice to the fashion designers in this project means also a lot for us because of our family background in the fashion business. All the more today fashion exhibitions are common in all museums.

Haute couture and the fashion industry have entered the gaming industry, and we have only just gotten started. We are witnessing a new era in retail, where our physical lives will increasingly blend with our digital lives. For that reason, digital fashion has the potential to shake up the fashion industry as we know it and make style items more accessible to a broader audience. 

Digital fashion is not just about clothes – digital fashion can be about anything you can wear or use. From hats to shoes and jewelry accessories, the possibilities are endless”. 

In response V-Art has recruited a number of leading players in the Ukrainian fashion world starting with the Ukrainian Fashion Education Group (UFEG); the largest educational institution in Ukraine that has a specialty in fashion and delivers close to 100 courses, lectures, workshops and webinars on the subject. Their space will give viewers a teaser of five new works from the collection developed by their students that will also be featured at the Digital Fashion Week in New York this September. 

One more space to keep your eyes peeled for is that furnished by our friends at Ukrainian Fashion Week. The event was founded in 1997 and became the first prêt-à-porter event in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Fashion Week is held twice a year and delivers a heady mix of international events in Ukraine as well as in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo and New York that aim to promote the future of Ukrainian fashion across the globe. Iryna Danilevskaya, CEO and co-founder of Ukrainian Fashion Week comments: 

“Today, the digital dimension has become an alternative platform for popularizing fashion. Thanks to this, digital fashion art began to appear, which is a new direction in modern culture. Ukrainian Fashion Week has been supporting digital fashion projects of Ukrainian designers for many seasons, understanding the importance of developing the Ukrainian fashion industry in the digital space, especially during the war. Thus, the world will be able to see as many works of talented Ukrainians as possible. Digital collections and digital presentations are the formats that designers use when integrating into the digital world”. 

From the world of women’s fashion we have Litkovska, a unique womenswear brand with stores in most of the world’s main fashion hubs, including New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. Litovska makes use of the motto “there is no wrong side”, with their work frequently making use of double-sided outerwear and reversed denim. They will be sharing pieces that are now showing as part of their ‘Artisanal’ collection at the official womenswear fashion week in Paris. This line makes use of fabric scraps, vintage apparel and leftovers from previous collections, that are distributed to rural areas of Ukraine, where they are then re-woven into new fabric on 100-year-old authentic looms. Women’s clothing brands are also represented by Ukraine’s popular women’s fashion house BEVZA, founded in Kyiv by fashion designer Svitlana Bevza, in 2006. Represented in boutiques all over the world, Svitlana’s brand became the first Ukrainian brand to make it to the ‘Vogue Talents’ finals in Milan and has also presented at New York Fashion Week. BEZVA will exhibit both 2D and 3D virtual objects at the Pavilion.

Moving away from clothing, another Ukrainian brand being represented in the space is the work of the Gunia Project, a brand of pieces for the home, inspired by traditional ethnic cultures. Each collection is a unique combination of design thinking, deep ethnographic research and artistic approach towards craftsmanship. Gunia will present several silk scarves from the FREEDOM collection at the Pavilion, which also contains objects emblazoned with the words peace, brave, liberty and freedom. And finally, another institution rising to the challenge is the PUSHKA School, another leading fashion design school in Ukraine known for its modern approach to clothing creation and an alumni of established designers.