'This is our frontline': Ukrainian designers show at London Fashion Week
Video and words by Sam Leader, ITV News' Here's The Story
The Ukrainian designer behind the outfits for artists including Beyonce and Sam Smith’s back-up dancers showed their collection on the final day of London Fashion Week, almost a year on from the start of the war in Ukraine.
Some of Ukraine’s finest designers took to the Old Selfridges Hotel in London to debut their collections including Ksenia Schnaider, Paskal and Frolov.
The show opened to a silent crowd as a voice announced the collections we were about to see had “been created under the sounds of missile attacks and air raid sirens”.
ITV News’ Here’s The Story spoke to one of the designers, Ivan Frolov, who still works with his team from the bombarded capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.
Ivan is the founder and creative director of Frolov which was founded back in 2015 and has recently dressed stars like Beyoncé and the backup dancers for Sam Smith.
“It's very big opportunity [to represent at London Fashion Week], not only to represent Frolov brand, but also to continue to talk about the war in Ukraine.”
Ivan remarked on how his team have been making clothes whilst Russia have been sending rockets to Kyiv – lamenting on the fact that “in the same moment when sewing crystals to a dress - soldiers are fighting and dying on the frontline”.
“This is our frontline because in this way we can save working places for our employees and earn money and pay taxes and support the economy of our country.”
During rocket attacks Frolov’s workspace would lose electricity and they’d rely on an expensive generator to power their space.
Whilst the brand were producing items for Sam Smith’s backup dancers in the video “I’m Not Here To Make Friends”, they lost power, and had to use their phones to light their workspace.
Logistically the outfits had to go through Poland to London in time for the filming, so they manually rolled the heavy machines and hand embroidered the outfits under the lights of their phone torch.
He added “there is nothing impossible for Ukrainian.”
“If we compare what we are doing with what guys doing on the frontline [it’s] nothing special [but] if it doesn't kill us, we can do it.”
The brand centres around love, sex, intelligence and provocation and motifs often centre around the human heart.
His latest collection, shown on Monday at fashion week was titled Song after Song and was dedicated to his exploration into Ukrainian sexuality.
It included corset dresses hand-embroidered with crystals and knit-wear featuring the Ukrainian fertility symbol.