Reporter | Chen Qirui
Edit | Lou Shuqin
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A few days ago, Iryna Kokhana was planning trips to Europe and the United States. She is the co-founder of the Ukrainian independent designer brand Chereshnivska. Although the escalation of the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the past few weeks has greatly affected the operation of the brand, Iryna Kokhana still expects that customers will place more foreign trade orders after seeing the samples.
"We are worried about the current situation, but we are already accustomed to this instability." Iryna Kokhana told The Daily Women's Wear. The story of Ukrainian designers in conflict was published on February 22. Two days later, the conflict continued to escalate. Fire and gunfire swept over Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and Iryna Kokhana's plans had to be canceled.
"We are now organizing to protect the safety of all employees, and I will reply to more detailed information later." A Chereshnivska brand spokesperson told Interface Fashion. The message was replied to at 5 p.m. Beijing time on February 24. Before and after this, Chereshnivska posted several messages through the official Instagram account requesting support for Ukraine.
As of press time, no further responses have been received from the interface. At 9 p.m. Beijing time on February 24, at 3 p.m. Kiev time, the State Administration of Kiev City issued a circular asking residents who heard the air defense siren to enter the civil defense shelter immediately. In the hours that followed, clashes erupted near Kiev.
Chereshnivska had planned to host their first new outfit launch in Paris in March
Ukraine's already fragile fashion industry may suffer an unprecedented blow. Fashion has not really formed a large-scale industrial structure in Ukraine for a long time.
Ukraine was once the center of the textile industry within the Soviet Union. But in the open market formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine is no longer a textile powerhouse on which the countries of Eastern Europe rely, it has become a part of the globalized supply chain. The loss of a large number of customers has severely hit Ukraine's textile industry, and the economic downturn has made the local people choose to reduce their spending in the field of shoes and clothing.
But also because of globalization, the situation of "external difficulties" in the Ukrainian textile industry was first alleviated. Exchange rate advantages and cheap labor attract brands that want to expand into global markets after the 21st century. From Adidas and Esprit to Hugo Boss, a number of Western European brands have opened factories in Ukraine.
According to the Cleaning Clothes Campaign, a consulting research institute, there are currently more than 6,000 factories and 220,000 people serving the Ukrainian garment industry, including various grey patterns. Affected by the epidemic, many European brands with global production lines have also deliberately increased their investment in Ukraine in order to ensure the stability of future production.
While Ukraine was wobbling over Eastern and Western ideologies and economic models, those who had gotten rich first began to lick the taste of luxury. Nobel laureate in literature Alexievich wrote in the book that the Soviets' expectation of fashion during the Cold War was to visit the boutiques opened in Paris. Ukrainians, who became wealthy first, and some Russians, introduced Parisian-branded boutiques directly to Kiev.
The Helen Marlen Group is a Ukrainian retail oligarchy with a strong grasp of offline and online channels, representing several European luxury brands in Ukraine. In 2005, the Helen Marlen Group began by introducing Saint Laurent Saint Laurent to Kiev, followed by the introduction of brands such as Gucci Gucci and Burberry Burberry to Ukraine.
Soon after, Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton, Dior Dior and Chanel Chanel also opened boutiques in Kiev. Despite the downturn in the Ukrainian economy in recent years, the high-end consumption sector has maintained steady growth.
Mykhail Kavitskyi, chairman of the Helen Marlen Group, previously said in an interview with Bof Fashion Business Review that the group recorded growth despite the tense situation. Evgeniy Mamay, CEO of Kiev luxury department store Tsum, said sales in 2021 increased by 50% and 36% respectively from 2020 and 2019.
Stores of the Helen Marlen Group
Ukraine's local fashion power also gradually grew, and after 2010 ushered in an explosion. In fact, during this time, designers from Eastern European countries such as Georgia, Ukraine and Russia emerged in the Western European world. Most famous is Demna Gvasalia, who was born in Georgia in the former Soviet Union, founded Victors and is now the creative director of Balenciaga Balenciaga.
Ukraine has also given birth to well-known independent designer brands such as Ruslan Baginskiy, Paskal and Ienki Ienki. The popularity of these Eastern European brands and the development of a new generation of social media such as Instagram are almost in tandem, inseparable from the exposure brought by the clothing of Internet celebrities such as Kourtney Kardashian Courtney Kardashian and Bella Hadid Bella Hadid.
It was also in the process that Ukrainians tried to bring together the scattered influences of various designers, shedding the image of the past "European garment factory" and creating a new "Made in Ukraine" label. Various trade associations and industry events have been established, and the frequency of Ukrainian Fashion Week coverage is gradually increasing.
For many analysts, Ukraine seems to have become a highly promising fashion market, and even Condé Nast launched the Ukrainian vogue in 2013 in collaboration with local publishers. Prior to this, the Ukrainian editions of magazines such as Bazaar and Elle had already been launched.
Bella Hadid wears the coat of Iienki Ienki
But the fashion industry is still a small industry in Ukraine. According to Euromonitor, Ukraine's luxury goods industry only crossed the $1 billion threshold in 2015. Also in the same year, the overall sales of the Ukrainian garment industry were only 2.4 billion US dollars. In the case of economic downturn, nearly half of the country's clothing consumption flows into the luxury sector, reflecting great inequality between rich and poor.
This also explains why this year's emerging ukrainian independent designer brands are so dependent on overseas clients. In the case of Iienki Ienki, its most famous down jacket often sells for more than $1,000, but Ukraine's per capita income was only $2,145 at the end of 2020. Ukraine has one of the lowest per capita incomes in Europe.
Interface Fashion asked Ienki Ienki about its operational strategy and the impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but the brand said it was not in a position to respond to the relevant matters at this time. But what is certain is that, at least for some time to come, Independent Designer Brands in Ukraine will be in a slump. Inaccessible communication, sluggish markets and shortages of supplies have brought the country's fashion industry back into the dark after a difficult start.
For Russia's fashion industry, the impact of the war will gradually emerge. After the implementation of multinational sanctions, the sales of Russian brands in the European and American markets, and even the travel of designers themselves, will be affected. Although the Russian luxury market, like Ukraine, has continued to develop during the epidemic, the overall shrinking wealth of residents will have a longer-term impact.
It is worth mentioning that as an industry that is still dominated by Europe and the United States, the luxury industry in European and American countries will also be affected after the sanctions.
The jewelry industry has been most directly affected. Russian diamond miners, led by Elosa, supplied a large amount of rough to the global market. According to The New York Times, Belgium deliberately excluded the diamond industry from the area of sanctions at the beginning of the EU's negotiations on sanctions. According to the Antwerp World Diamond Center, 86% of the world's rough diamonds are traded in Antwerp, Belgium.
Regardless of which side, the respective fashion industries are difficult to profit from military events. Compared with industries such as finance and energy, the fashion industry is often considered frivolous. But in the past three decades, the fashion industry from Europe and the United States has influenced its aesthetics on the Far East with the help of globalization, built communication between different cultures, and to a certain extent enlightened and helped the local people to show their own culture through fashion. But when people change their costumes to military uniforms, all visions turn into bubbles.