MBFWK: more highlights

The weekend spent at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Kiev was an amazing experience. I now realize that I even miss it. I've browsed through some of the photographs I made there and decided to share some with you, my fashionable readers. 

1. Show by Svetlana Tegin. this Russian designer stood out with her 90s-inspired collection. Sweet, but not really my style. The wedding dress was gorgeous, though. 

2.  Robb Young's lecture. The editor from British Vogue and author of "Power dressing: First Ladies, Women Politicians and Fashion" spoke about women and what they wear in politics. I asked him whether a woman in power needs to be patriotic and, surprisingly, he said that it depends on the culture. 

3. It's Me collection by Dina Linnik - the winner of this year's Fashion Forward competition by Harper's Bazaar Ukraine. The show was held on the small podium but it did turn out to be one of the strongest collections in the whole Fashion Week. Dina is a promising young talent. The prices of her clothes are surprisingly high for such a young designer, though. 

Enjoy your evening, guys and girls x

Catwalk review: Anton Belinskiy

Anton Belinskiy's show was, perhaps, one of the most controversial shows of MBFWK. It was enthusiastically criticized by Ukrainian bloggers and yet the turnout was incredible for such a young designer. The show was a first on the "big" catwalk for Anton and it was interesting to see how he has grown since his previous show this summer. 

 

Polina Moroz walked at the show. From what I've heard, she has finished her modelling career, yet it was nice to see her back on the catwalk

I, personally, believe that you can't love or hate a whole collection, you must look at separate garments and details. There were some things I didn't get and some things I loved. The unconventional layering was interesting to see and the colour scheme was fresh - black, white and lime look cool for spring. The capes of the dresses were not something I particularly liked, yet they gave an oomph to the collection. 

I, at the shows

Anton Belinskiy

I was wearing a top by Belinskiy, and when Anton saw me at another designer's show, he was pleased to see his creation on me and invited me up to his showroom to choose a skirt to match the top. I'm planning to go and shop, this guy has something special in his design. 

On disco Uggs

Hunting for my ultimate (and the very first in my wardrobe) pair of uggs has been the obsession of the last week. I roamed the web in search of the most convenient way of ordering them, stumbled across some dodgy Ukraine-based sites that I wasn't sure I could trust and decided, after all the research and questionings that I would just go to the new Ugg Australia store and buy a pair. 

They turned out to be more expensive than ordering from the USA, yet I'm still over the moon with my new buy. What I thought last year was that uggs would be well forgotten by this season, yet they are more screamingly fashionable than ever. That's not the reason I got them, though. They are inexplicably comfortable and warm - and that's what you want to be in the -30 degrees Celcius Ukrainian winter. 

So here I am with these new sequined babies. They sure will make me feel like a rockstar this winter. =D

Urban Philosophy

Urban Outfitters is my first shopping destination when I come to visit London. This shopping heaven is, unfortunately, not present on the Ukrainian market yet, so all I'm left with is dreaming of my next trip to the UK.

No matter what this sounds like but I believe that the UO stores portray my whole philosophy behind shopping and fashion. And do I love their AW 2011 lookbooks. Here are a few shots I stole from their website. Enjoy.

Personal brands - reflections on Face Hunter's words

I saw this video for the first time on the Boys In Trouble blog (two guys from Kiev blogging about their being out and about and all things fashion, I strongly recommend it to all the Russian-speaking bloggers).

FACEHUNTER NYC (part1of2) from The 88 on Vimeo.

Yvan Rodic came to the MBFWK with a lecture (which I, unfortunately didn't get to hear), and we Ukrainians love him here. The thing that I want to point out from this video is Yvan's quote about modern young people:

"Nowadays, if you observe the youngest people who are, literally, born with the Internet, they can see themselves like a mini-brand, like a personal brand. Having Facebook is like having a personal ad campaign, and any opportunity to be photographed on a street style blog at a party or on a nightlife blog is a new chance for them to get more visibility".

This is so true. It scares me sometimes to think that we are so involved with our online presence. It sounds ridiculous coming from a blogger, yet we need to get back in touch with reality more often and forget about what we are to publish for the rest of the world to see. Intimacy, home, being alone and offline is what we need to do more. 

PS And if anyone knows what song is playing from 03:50 please please let me know, I'm desperate to find out. 

Is fashion art?

This Saturday, at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Kiev, I went to hear a lecture by Valerie Steele - Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I've read that she is referred to as one of "fashion's brainiest women", and I must say that she is. One rarely hears so much structure, passion and logic when people talk about fashion.  

She talked about the definition of fashion as a form of art and the dispute around this. I never really thought about it, although the question is raised by many people in fashion.  

So what is fashion? Is it art?

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months" 

- Oscar Wilde

Dr Steele stressed that it is not only about defining a piece of clothing as a piece of art, but about deciding whether the designer is an artist. A good example is Andy Warhol, whose coke cans were considered art, let alone clothes. The person was perceived as an artist, therefore his works qualified as art. 

Yet, Gabrielle Chanel's point of view was different. What she believed was that art was meant to be immortal, while fashion was created to be worn and to die with the following season. Interesting it is, though, that Chanel's creations ended up being perfectly immortal and classic themselves. 

Haute couture may be considered art, since we have to see beyond just its wearability - the beautiful dresses are made to be admired just like any painting is.

Dr Steele gave many other examples - and some from her own experience - where the controversial nature of fashion revealed itself. In particular, she mentioned that Hollywood film costumes were not allowed to be displayed as pieces of art in one of NYC's art museums.

Personally, I tend to think that fashion is not art. It is there to be practical, to be a part of our life, to express ourselves. Art is to be pleasant to the eye and soul and to be admired. What do you think?

PS While posting this I came to the conclusion that art is soul searching and fashion, first of all, is intellect. There's something to think about in future posts.

MBFWK - the people, the emotions

This has been a head-spinning few days. I went to see some shows at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Kiev and attended two lectures, too. I would stay there for the whole deal if I could but uni is in the way of dedicating myself to fashion completely.

The Fashion Week was held in the building of the Olimpiyskiy stadium where Euro 2012 will take place, so that was exciting for the foreign guests.

I have a whole stack of photos that I want to share, there are so many things to stay, so I'll just do it all in small portions. Let's start with the guests and the atmosphere. That was definitely interesting.

A jewelry display from PURE store

A bunch of lovely Ukrainian bloggers

I, surprised

Now, a few shoes and details...

Front row footwear at the Sasha Kanevski show

Today's the end of the Fashion Week. Overall, it was great. There are more detailed posts to come, but you get the idea. Well done to the organisers of the event, can't wait until next season to experience more. 

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Kiev

Kiev's excited, I'm excited. Tomorrow the Ukrainian capital will see the opening of its own Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. What used to be Kiev Fashion Days is now a part of the world's famous Fashion Week. And I will get my press badge this Thursday, so do expect some runway reports here, too. I really can't wait.

The event includes not only fashion shows by Ukrainian and foreign designers but also lectures and seminars with the industry's very influential people (among them Robb Young, Yvan Rodic, Valerie Steele and others).

The ad campaign for MBFWK is all over the city. I love the shoots: they are a sort of summary and previews of the participating designers' SS2012 collections. The model is Alla Kostromicheva. Enjoy.

VALERY KOVALSKA

L.P. BY POUSTOVIT

SASHA KANEVSKI

KSENIA SCHNAIDER