From fashion designers to models, everyone put the Ukrainian cause before business and extended their support through donations and symbolic gestures
A model walks the runway dressed in yellow and blue during the Louis Vuitton Fall-Winter 2022 show at Paris Fashion Week. Nicolas Ghesquiere, the creative head of the fashion house, dedicated the show to young people who inspire, “idealism, hope for the future, for a better world”. AP
Paris Fashion Week is synonymous with high fashion and celebrities putting their stylish foot forward. However, this year’s fashion week was unlike any other, as it was over-shadowed by the war in Ukraine.
Coco Chanel, one of the greatest fashion icons, had once said: “Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
And that’s exactly what the Paris Fashion Week, held from 28 February to 8 March did. Designers and models, participating in the event, stood up for Ukraine and made their support known for the country that is being battered by the Russian forces for the past 22 days.
While some offered heartfelt tributes to the Ukrainian people alongside their collections, others opted to donate their earnings from the shows.
Here’s a look at how high fashion took a stance against Russia at the event.
Balenciaga
No fashion house was more vocal in their support to Ukraine than the Spanish luxury fashion house, now headed by designer Demna, who has dropped his surname Gvasalia.
A refugee himself during a conflict in his native Georgia in the early 1990s, he admitted that fashion week felt like “an absurdity” against the background of the war in Ukraine.
But he decided that cancelling the show would have felt like “surrendering to the evil that has already hurt me so much for almost 30 years”, as per an AFP report.
He recited a poem in Ukrainian by one of the country’s treasured poets Oleksandr Oles and all the seats at the show were draped in the country’s blue-and-yellow flag.
Besides these symbolic acts, Balenciaga’s show drew parallels with the conditions that the Ukrainian people are facing during the war.
Models in the show strutted down a catwalk banked in snow, designed to mimic a bitterly cold snowstorm clutching oversized trashbags made of leather.
The major fashion also erased all images from its Instagram feed; it boasts of having 13 million followers. As of date, the Instagram account only has a link to donate to the World Food Programme.
Kering, which owns Balenciaga, also announced the suspension of its operations in Russia, temporarily shutting its two stores there.
Russian designer cancelled
The Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the Paris Fashion Week’s organising body, also announced that it had removed Russian designer Valentin Yudashkin from this year’s Paris Fashion Week calendar.
File image of Russian designer Valentin Yudashkin at a fashion show in Paris. Yudashkin is one of Russia’s leading and most well-known fashion designers. AFP
Ralph Toledano, the president of the fashion body, told Women’s Wear Daily: “We have a firm stance against the initiative taken by the president of the Russian Federation. We have nothing against Russian (people), but we will not support or accept to have in our calendar those who support his position.”
Yudashkin is one of Russia’s leading and most well-known fashion designers. He has been featured in multiple esteemed fashion publications, as well as in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Stella McCartney’s ‘Cold War’ vibes
The noted British designer opened her show with clips of United States president John F Kennedy’s moving 1963 address about the Cold War and closed it to the music of John Lennon’s anti-war ballad Give Peace a Chance.
She was quoted telling Reuters: “I believe very firmly in peace and love and obviously to use John’s song, who was my dad’s best friend… it just shows for me, it’s a personal song that reflects the whole world’s thoughts, I hope, right now.”
For those who may not know, Stella McCartney is the daughter of Paul McCartney, who was part of the iconic band The Beatles.
Gigi’s good deed
Supermodel Gigi Hadid announced that she would donate all her fashion month earnings towards relief efforts in Ukraine.
The supermodel in an Instagram post said that while she couldn’t control her hectic work schedule, she was keen to help those in need. She credited model Mica Arganaraz for inspiring her decision.
View this post on Instagram
Her sister Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber also joined her in this effort.
Besides this, big brands such as Chanel, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Prada have put their businesses on hold in Russia.
Others announced donations, such as the million euros offered for Ukrainian children by Louis Vuitton.
With inputs from agencies
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