An important part of the official program of Ukrainian Fashion Week FW26–27 was, as tradition holds, the educational block, designed to showcase four leading Ukrainian fashion schools that continue to operate despite the challenges of the full-scale war: Kyiv Academy of Media Arts (KAMA), MODETON School of Style, Schooll of Art x Craft, and Ukrainian Fashion Education Group (UFEG).

The lecture program highlighted the systemic role of Ukrainian Fashion Week in developing a professional ecosystem and shaping a new generation of competent and creative leaders within the fashion industry.

КАМА

Kyiv Academy of Media Arts hosted an open lecture titled “Communications in Fashion: How to Create Influence and Desire.” The discussion focused on the role of communication within the fashion industry, emphasizing that today fashion is shaped not only by the product itself but also by the stories, values, and cultural context a brand communicates to its audience.

The speaker was Anton Yeremenko, PR Director of GUNIA Project, fashion journalist, KAMA lecturer, and author of the book Fashion Directory of Ukraine.

MODETON

The role of the stylist in the fashion industry was explored during the MODETON lecture “Stylist as a Mediator Between Brand and Client.”

Participants included Anna Nazarchuk, Head of PR at BEVZA; Alina Kacharovska, co-founder and CEO of KACHOROVSKA; and Olha Halushka, personal and corporate stylist and founder of the MODETON School of Style.

The speakers shared their experience of collaboration between brands and stylists, discussed how personal stylists are shaping a new culture of fashion consumption, and explained why they are increasingly becoming an important point of contact between a brand and its client.

Schooll of Art x Craft

“Global markets are becoming local again. Unpredictability and changing logistics chains are teaching us to build our own systems, close to home. Using the examples of three designers, we discussed the influence of globalism on brands, products, and ideas,” shared Oleksandr Trotsiuk, co-founder of the brand Ghostorchid.

Oleksandr has worked in the fashion industry since 2009. He began his career at Atelier 1, later working at the Kyiv boutique Prototype with brands including Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester, Haider Ackermann, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Guidi, and Maison Kitsuné.

He was also part of the team behind ObjectX, a brand that has exhibited multiple times at Pitti Uomo, and is a former co-founder of the clothing brand Act.1. Today, he works as a consultant in outsourcing production and materials and is a regular lecturer at Schooll of Art x Craft.

UFEG

The school Ukrainian Fashion Education Group (UFEG) hosted a lecture titled “BIODESIGN. Grown-to-Wear.” UFEG lecturers introduced audiences to an innovative and truly sustainable direction in global fashion and design — Grown-to-Wear.

The school’s founder, Maryna Losieva, and the curators of the first fashion school in Ukraine to integrate biodesign into its educational system and establish the Biodesign Community, explained how a fundamentally different approach to creating garments is transforming the industry.

This approach introduces a new aesthetic and production logic: dresses can be dyed with bacteria, while bags can be grown from mushroom mycelium. Biodesign reduces production volumes, transforms supply chains, and fosters a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.

Photo: Katya Gagosova.