Paris Fashion Week: Ukraine's Lilia Litkovska's carousel collection wins hearts and minds

We all know what has been going on in Ukraine this year, the utter heartbreak and devastation of war. But this week in Paris, Ukrainian brand Litkovska showed the fashion world that in the midst of war the spirit of the nation and its creative pursuits are still hard at work to produce and inspire.

Set in the heart of the French capital at the Carrousel de Castiglione, in the Jardin des Tuileries, the brand’s creative director Lilia Litkovska, unveiled “Vesnianka.” The theme is a nod to traditional Ukrainian spring greeting songs. 

Litkovska told Euronews Culture: “It’s totally inspired by my people, Ukrainians as a nation. The way yesterday’s businessmen and women, lawyers, workers at factories, nannies, beauty workers and the likes stood up for the defence at the start of full-scale war, to be honest, made me realize that Ukraine is not a small girl anymore but a young woman with defined desires." 

"She respects herself and her boundaries with history and deep roots, hopes, and beliefs. This woman is fearlessly stepping into a new stage of her life, carrying the beauty inside and out, showing the character and that she has grown with the ambition she holds,” Litkovska added.

Ordinary people, extraordinary times

There’s something very hopeful about the sartorial story of this collection. It’s very much looking to tomorrow with the fears that have engulfed Ukraine, as a sort of past. Litkovska is clearly saying with spring comes new beginnings and a new dawn, so is Ukraine, and so is the world in these tough times. 

On a large carousel, a quartet of women dressed in Ukrainian traditional clothing started singing a vesnianka. “Our ancestors used to sing these songs that honor the solar year, preparing for the work in the fields, asking superior powers for support in their beginnings,” shared Litkovska.

The silhouettes for the collection are modern yet edgy with shapely silhouettes, as according to the House is a refined arts-inspired chic brand at the intersection between sophisticated tailoring and daily comfort filled with allusions to traditional Ukrainian costume.

“Several pieces are decorated with an embroidery of a heartbreaking poem called “A Prayer of a Ukrainian Patriot’, which was initially written by a political dissident in his blood on the walls of his cell in the 1930s.

Now, this is a prayer of Azov, the brave Ukrainian heroes, who were blocked in the Azovstal plant and kept on fighting, being on the edge of human abilities. Now, every word of the 90-year-old prayer resonates in our hearts with pride and pain at the same time and remains relevant to nowadays.