Reported by Tetyana Khmelivska and Valentina Klimenko
Photo:Olena Oliynik collection
Day six kicked off with a debut. A young Dnipropetrovsk designer Tetyana Samatova who works for the Lugaru fashion house presented her collection on the catwalk of UFW for the first time. The style of the house is dominated by classics. Its favorite color is black. Tight long coats, tuxedos that fit the figure perfectly, gauzy chiffon blouses with flying wing-sleeves combined with Rammstein music have endowed the collection this a gothic character. The male part of the collection sometimes looked even more interesting than the female one. A girl in a trench coat and exquisite jackboots is hardly a surprise to anyone, but a young man in a wattled sweater with a wide leather belt makes an instant impression.
Being a gifted artist and colorist Alena Oleynik was torn between the pure creativity and the well-known burdens of a commercial collection. Neat knitted jumpers with pronounced décolleté, blouses made of fine knitted-wear, cute dresses in a variety of colors all make an impression of a creative commercial collection. Oleynik is much more interesting when she dares on a mix of styles, textures and prints. Hollow sleeveless jackets in fine floral patterns, a blouse with lilac irises and emerald quilted collars outline the general direction how I would like to see Alena Oleynik's productions to develop towards Ukrainian Fashion Week next October.
The debut collection of Lyudmila Sedlyar and Victoria Chikulay, who have been collaborating under the label LUVI for three consecutive seasons, has made such an outstanding impression on anyone who saw it that now the audience visits the shows of these adherents of minimalism with an expectation of furor. This time the designers complied with the majority in paying tribute to the 70-ies and, as they explained, have created an image of a young princess fond of rock concerts. Little dresses with a torn-away tap imitation, carelessly sewn sleeves, sports-jerseys with leather insets and shoulder-straps, trousers with purposefully loose knees are so vivid that they have no need of additional embellishments or accessories.
By and large Natasha Glazkova can hardly count as a minimalism or an adherent of youth fashion. Her F/W 2008-2009 collection entitled Reflection is haute couture multiplied by a factor of ten. It boasts complicated cut, image and direction. Reflection is a striking testimony to the fact that the artist in Glazkova has finally prevailed over any commercial considerations resulting in cultural quotations overflooding the catwalk: complicated geometrical cut, baroque exuberance, sharp plaits of dresses and blouses that resemble Joan of Arc's armor, trousers as if from the outer space and lurex leggings covering the heels that give the models a somewhat humanoid look. The primary silhouette of the collection is exaggeratedly elongated, the luxurious silk of deep claret, cobalt, black and grey hues is overloaded with details. Beautiful aristocratic white openwork on tweed coats upgrades them to the level of art.
The designers representing the DSFURS label that works with fur have drawn their inspiration from Audrey Hepburn in The Breakfast at Tiffany's. As the result the collection is defined by minimalist fur coats of classical hues – black, white, grey, and brown, with a three-quarters sleeve and rounded taps. The major emphasis of the collection is made on mink, but there is also a coat made of Canadian bobcats' fur, astrakhan fur, shaved beaver and the fox. The main fur is delicately touched with coyote, lama, polar fox and raccoon insets. Olga Alyonova thinks that one can hardly do without fur given the Ukrainian climate. And, moreover, it is such a pleasure to compliment a sumptuous mink fur coat with noir red pedicure that looks so showy in shoes with open toes.
