Ukraine Fashion Week kicks off as war looms

Ukraine FW

Ukrainian Fashion Week, Source: AFP

The threat of war in Ukraine might be on everybody’s lips but walk into the Mystetskyi Arsenal art complex and you might as well be in an episode of “Sex & the City’’.

Pretty young things in stiletto booties, red-lipped and decked out in the latest trends, mill about exchanging gossip, a voluminous leather tote or trendy little clutch in hand.

Ukrainian Fashion Week kicked off on Friday and will showcase over 40 local designers over six days.

But with Russian forces at the border and Crimea threatening a breakup of Ukraine, organisers and designers insist they are trying to send a message to Europe and the rest of the world, as well as to people at home.

“We thought of postponing Ukrainian Fashion Week but when the Crimea situation began we knew we had to do it now,’’ Iryna Danylevska, co-founder and organiser of the event, told AFP. Read more..