Vegan Fashion Week signs exclusive partnership with Ukrainian Fashion Week for next edition

By

Chenu Alexis

Published
Jul 27, 2022

Launched in 2018 by Emmanuelle Rienda, the French expatriate in the United States, Vegan Fashion Week (VFW) will collaborate for its fourth edition with a special guest: the Ukrainian Fashion Week (UFW), at an event scheduled on October 10-12.

“For 25 years, we have worked hard to become the unifying force of the fashion industry and its most influential player,” explained Iryna Danylevska, co-founder and CEO of Ukrainian Fashion Week. 

“In 1997 designers received a call from the Ukrainian Fashion Week to unite in the industry, and today UFW is developing in key areas – sustainability, digitalization, inclusion and diversity. Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, all of us are living in a state of incredible stress and survival that everyone feels in every corner of our country. However, Ukrainian designers found the strength during the war to create new collections to tell the whole world about Ukrainian resilience and courage, as well as to show Ukrainian national identity through clothing”.

“As we continue to focus on the responsibility of our movement to incubate and strengthen the future of vegan fashion, we are incredibly humbled and proud to welcome Ukrainian Fashion Week as this year’s guest and take the opportunity to introduce their exceptional vision to our international audience”, said  Emmanuelle Rienda, founder of Vegan Fashion Week.

“I look forward to activating our partnership and parallel dedication to celebrating creativity in meaningful design." 

This unique fashion collaboration will introduce the best of Ukrainian fashion through a collective runway, a designer showroom and authentic conversations surrounding ethics and sustainability in fashion hosted by the newly renovated California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The show will feature more than a dozen Ukrainian brands and designers, including the eco-responsible label Chereshnivska founded by Irina Kokhana, the hemp textile and ready-to-wear brand Devohome and its designer Oksana Devoe, and the avant-garde brand DZHUS founded by Irina Dzhus. Other accessory brands will also be present, such as Ochis, a brand of glasses made from coffee beans by Maksym Havrylenko. 

Rienda plans to cultivate the global fashion scene with exciting collaborations and activations, such as the exclusivity for the launch of a capsule collection by Nous Étudions (LVMH Prize 2020 Shortlist Designer) in collaboration with Desserto cactus-based biomaterials. And, continue to establish Vegan World, the only professional trade show focused on vegan fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.
 
Ticket purchases and additional donations will benefit the VFW Mentorship Fund, which provides continued support for emerging sustainable fashion designers to increase their exposure and business opportunities in the U.S. market. This season’s benefits will support Ukrainian fashion designers.