For pre-fall, Svitllana Bevza was thinking about building a wardrobe that can last a lifetime. “In this collection, there is a lot of anthology of Bevza, and of me, because I was thinking about what I would wear, how I could combine these things with my wardrobe, how they could last for a lot of seasons, because there’s a lot of overproduction now,” she said during a Zoom call from her native Ukraine. “Elegance is a good investment.”
Which means there are many good—no, great—investments to be had in this collection. There were elegant suits: like the cropped jacket and simple handkerchief hem wrap skirt that opened the collection; another, a very on-trend oversized jacket paired with a slim, pleated maxi skirt with a bra-hook closure detail. “We used this for our shoes a couple years ago,” the designer recalled. “I would say this look is very closed, emotionally closed, but with this closure on the front, it’s a bit flirty. It becomes something intimate.” A fuzzy coat made from recycled wool had thick seams that outlined the rounded shape of its sleeves in a way that was both strict and protective, like a cocoon.
The standout pieces of the collection are surely the ones that bear an influence of the designer’s heritage; not only are they objectively beautiful, they are also proof of the importance of keeping centuries-old traditions alive. Another skirt suit, this time a cream short jacket with traditional frog button closure paired with a midi skirt with a slight mermaid hem was knitted by hand by a local artisan in Kyiv. “This is a very special piece for us,” she explained. “It was created during the period of blackouts in Kyiv, and the artisan who did the staples had to wake up really early at home so she could sit by the window and work with the sunlight.” The pieces are also zero-waste, the ribbons are cut (“At 45 degrees, then stitched together”) from surplus cotton. There was also a cropped version of the jacket, made in black, and paired with a voluminous cream ball skirt that captured a very fresh ’90s sort of attitude.
Throughout our conversation, there were glimpses of what it’s like to be a creative in a country besieged by war: the artisan having to work by daylight because of blackouts, their original shoot date being canceled by raid alarms,” her penchant for the color white. “White means always, a blank sheet of paper, a next day, something new, like you’re creating your life.”
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