On September 8th, the fifth event of the UKRAINIAN FASHION WEEK International Season SS23 took place – finalists of the All-Ukrainian competition of young fashion designers “LOOK  into the future” took part at Neo.Fashion. 2022 in Berlin.

From 6th to 8th September, the sixth edition of Neo.Fashion. took place as part of the Berlin Fashion Week. New location, Neo.Fashion. 2022 moved into the Reinbeckhallen in Berlin-Oberschöneweide. This year the new format of “Aspiring Designers” was introduced. With this, Neo.Fashion. continues to develop and offers young designers a unique platform for promoting young talents in Germany.

In collaboration with Ukrainian Fashion Week, six participants and winners of the competition “LOOK into the future” presented their collections in a Collective Show.

“We are full of solidarity and happy to be able to give Ukrainian designers a platform in their current situation. The whole Neo.Fashion. team expresses its solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” Jens Zander, founder and CEO of Neo.Fashion.

“Genderless” collection by Lilia Oliinyk. Brand Genderless

While creating the collection, designer Liliia Oliinyk was inspired by the 19th century high school girls’ uniforms and the atmosphere of the Vogue dance. The designer strives to convey that clothes are created for comfort and self-expression and can`t personify gender and personal traits.

“Caprichos” Collection by Anna Kuzmenko

The inspiration of  the collection is the world-famous series of etchings “Caprichos” by the Spanish artist Francisco-José de Goya. The artist depicted not only the gloomy realities of 18th century Spain – epidemics, the Inquisition, social inequality – but also ridiculed the vices of his contemporaries. Anna Kuzmenko drew an analogy between the current situation in the world and the era of the artist. This suggested the cyclical nature of history and the universality of human experience.

“Timeless silhouette” collection by Nataliia Dovhanych. Brand Dovhanych

 The designer finds inspiration in the oriental style clothes. She believes that streetwear can be presented in a new beauty standard – relying on futuristic and aesthetic design. The collection demonstrates tectonic changes in the standards of the male image. These are clothes beyond time and gender.

“Iris Iridaceae” collection by Olha Zadybchuk

The inspiration for the collection is both the iris flower and sustainable fashion. The designer’s aim was to embody the battle of faith, hope, and love in the symbol of a flower. The way how beauty grows through struggle and goodness.

“Eruption” Collection by Olha Hontar

The collection is dedicated to the psychological effort to find a balance between immersion in the inner world and the soul’s desire for a feast: melancholy and bright emotion go together. Visual and tactile references are taken from natural textures, because “eruption” is a semantic parallel between mental and natural processes. The collection has upcycling elements made by using the weaving technique.

“rvl 2” collection by Olga Kirstein. Brand Moral Standards

the story
 We start to see an important indicator of projection. Those items in the environment (people or things) that strongly affect us instead of just informing us are usually our own projections. Items that bother us, upset us, repulse us, or at the other extreme, attract us, compel us, obsess us – these are usually reflections of the shadow.

Photo: Gerome Defance @defrance.images (catwalk), Robert Schlesinger @robertschlesinger (backstage)