Lviv Fashion Week: what's new in the SS 2020 season?

On October 10-13, Lviv will host Lviv Fashion Week SS 2020, the main location of which will be Fest Republic. The program is going to be eventful, versatile, unexpected, and will be held under the auspices of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Lviv City Council.

An unusual and interesting experiment, the result of cross-sectoral cultural cooperation, which will unite fans of music and fashion industry – Lviv Orchestra Fashion – will open the 24th edition of Lviv Fashion Week, which will begin on October 10 at Fest Republic. The Lviv Orchestra Fashion project is a presentation of the new SS 2020 collection by Marta Wachholz, accompanied by the INSO-Lviv symphony orchestra. Ivan Nebesnyi, Ukrainian composer, music producer, and member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, created a symphonic suite based on the themes of famous Ukrainian folk songs specifically for this project.

The main program is dominated by Ukrainian designers – spring/summer 2020 collections will be featured by Marta Wachholz, Chereshnivska, Olena Oliynyk, Olga Steblak, 7/11 Seven Eleven, Nit.kA, Onufriv.O, Juliya Kros, Kristina Laptso. Foreign participants of the Lviv Fashion Week will include Italian brands Balossa, Salvatore Piccione and Georgian brand Nemsen. Foreign guests of the Lviv Fashion Week will also include representatives of IED Istituto Europeo di Design, Vogue Czechoslovakia, Vogue Poland, Fashion Channel Milano, Schon magazine, Design Scene magazine.

Lviv Fashion Week traditionally supports young designers. This season the organizers have prepared two projects at once: Lviv Fashion Week for Eco – a contest among designers for the best eco-focused collection, – and Future Fashion Generation – a contest in which the most interesting and promising collections of beginner designers and young brands were selected.

Olena Lazorenko (Oppido brand) became the winner of the Lviv Fashion Week for Eco ecological program for Ukrainian designers. As an award Olena will receive production of a collection and its presentation at the Lviv Fashion Week SS 2020 at the organizer's expense. The program included a 5-day training and a contest among participants for the best eco-focused collection. A total of 36 designers from different regions of Ukraine took part in Lviv Fashion Week for Eco. Consultations on the environmental component of the collections during determination of the winner of the contest were provided by Zero Waste Lviv.

- When preparing for LvivFW for Eco lectures, I took an online course from London College of Fashion "Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World". The 5-day intensive course from the Lviv Fashion Week has greatly complemented and summed up all the knowledge and understanding of what I want to do; this is how I came up with the idea to create a Vintage silk upcycling project. I am very grateful to all speakers for their constructive dialog and important advice. These were 5 pleasant and fruitful days of study and 20 hard days of work, which gave me new knowledge, new skills, new interesting experience, and new pleasant acquaintances. Thank you! - Olena Lazorenko told us about her impressions of the project.

The following young brands became winners of the Future Fashion Generation contest: ORNAMENT, SOYKA, HAVRYLIV, FRBTK, Starchak, Zalesova, Iryna Soloviy. Their collections will be presented on October 10-13 - Lviv Fashion Week organizes presentation of project winners' collections on the main catwalk. 

The focus of Lviv Fashion Week SS 2020 is sustainable fashion, and as part of the fashion week, three environmental projects are being implemented, which are aimed at promoting sustainable fashion among designers and consumers, demonstrating that the eco-theme means quality and is trendy and promising, and at enhancing eco-activities in the work of Ukrainian designers. In addition to the environmental program for designers Lviv Fashion Week for Eco, there will be a Green Space eco-thinking space in the territory of Fest Republic, the main location of the event, where one will find eco-themed decorative designs that will include an informational, artistic, and visual component in order to improve eco-consciousness of the public. Specific thematic lectures, meetings, and discussions will also be held here. Lviv Fashion Week for Eco and Green Space projects are held under the auspices of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

The exhibition "Fashion Revolution. The future of textiles" highlights the fashion industries’ major challenges and showcases Swedish solutions and initiatives for a more sustainable system. It is produced by the Swedish Institute together with researchers and fashion experts, shown in Lviv in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden and Lviv Fashion Week.

The fashion industry is currently dominated by a linear structure sometimes described with the words ‘take, make, dispose’. The global clothes production has more than doubled since year 2000. We consume about 62 million tons of clothing globally per year, and only 20 percent is re-used or recycled. In short, the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. The exhibition shows new initiatives arising on the Swedish fashion scene – from research projects to sustainable collections, from established businesses to start-ups, between different industries and otherwise competing operations – paving the way for a fashion revolution.

"Fashion Revolution. The Future of Textiles" exhibition will be held on October 11-13 at Fest Republic, the main location of the event. A "Fast Fashion versus Slow Fashion" round table will be held on October 11 within the framework of the exhibition.

It is worth noting that there are many sustainable collections at the Lviv Fashion Week SS 2020 - SOYKA, Olga Steblak, Iryna Soloviy, FRBTK, Oppido, 7/11 Seven Eleven, Starchak, Juliya Kros.

Diversity you – frankly about tolerance towards otherness

„Diversity you” project is aimed at drawing attention to the variability and diversity of the concept of beauty in the fashion world, provoking the society to discussions, and creating public reaction to a topic that is one of the leading trends and also a logical continuation of discussions about globalization and tolerance in the modern world.

The basis of the "Diversity you" project are two photo sessions prepared by stylists Olena Boldyreva and Ihor Stepanyk, photographers Andriy Goncharenko and Martha Syrko; models presented clothes from designers Vozianov, Marta Wachholz, Kateryna Karol, and Lesia Semi. Photoshoots are unusual due to participation of "non-standard" models – people of all ages, races, body structures, with particularities, etc., – who expand the framework of imaginary and constantly changing stereotypes related to the concepts of "beauty", "aesthetics", "harmony", and "attractiveness".

The project will be presented in Futura Hub on October 10.

Lviv Fashion Cinema – a new project that will combine fashion and cinema – will also be held within the framework of the Lviv Fashion Week on October 10-13. Lviv Fashion Cinema is a series of events in the form of a lecture + films about fashion and design, which will be held at the Kino Palace "Kopernyk". The selection of movies for LvivFW was prepared and provided by Kyiv Music Film, an independent distributor of films about music and new culture, indie films. The following movies will be screened: “McQueen”, “Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist", "Dries", "Sex, Fashion, Disco", "My Generation", "Celebration".

In addition, the main schedule of spring/summer 2020 shows and presentations will include an educational forum on various aspects of the fashion industry, in which Ukrainian and foreign experts will take part. The following lectures will be delivered within the framework of the Fashion Forum, which will be held at the Design House and Green Space at the main location, Fest Republic, from October 10 to October 13: "Managing a startup in the fashion industry, through the example of Chereshnivska brand" (Iryna Kokhana, co-owner of Chereshnivska brand), "SMM strategy for a fashion brand" (Viktoria Bahday, manager of ONE : ONE AGENCY), "Motivational story of the Horondi brand" (Oleksandr Horondi, owner of Horondi brand), "Entry of a brand into international markets" (Indra Kaffemanaite, Creative/Art Director Balossa), "How to create a brand from scratch. Prospects of fashion education" (Natalia Kholodylo (owner of Novana Studio brand), "Business in the fashion industry through an example of a showroom. The main mistakes and crises" (Lidia Prodan, owner of Open Store Lviv showroom), "Sustainable fashion defines the future" (Klaudia Shevelyuk (founding partner of Change Agency Responsible Future), "Fashion residences: first experience and prospects" (Volodymyr Nechyporuk, general producer of Ukrainian Fashion Week, "Sustainable way. Innovations in textile industry" (Yana Chervinska, owner of Yana Chervinska brand), "Innovations and sustainability in fashion. Story and reality" (Olga Myelkova, IED Area Manager), "Brand strategy in the fashion industry" (Anna Kulchytska, owner of Friday Agency), "Trend 2020 in Fashion" (Giovanni Ottonello, IED Art Director).

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Lviv Fashion Week SS 2020 schedule