As part of the spring season of Ukrainian Fashion Week, RITO GROUP, which includes the brands RITO and 91LAB, will present a runway show dedicated to the theme of cyclicality and continuity. The past and the present, the idea and its realization, the designer’s intuition and the experience of time — all intertwine into a single line where no story disappears completely, but instead gains a new resonance.

This year, RITO celebrates its 35th anniversary. The brand’s story began at the end of the twentieth century, at a time when Ukraine was only approaching its independence. Since then, the brand has travelled a long path, becoming one of the mastodons of Ukrainian fashion and one of the voices shaping its continuity.

The anniversary show will become a kind of journey back to the origins. RITO GROUP turns to the brand’s archives — retro collections, early sketches, and the first visual ideas of its designers. Through a retrospective of one of the initial drawings, the team traces how ideas born decades ago return again and again in the present, transforming with time while preserving their inner essence. The show’s director, renowned choreographer Olga Semeshkina, brings together the brand’s collections across the years in a modern interpretation.

The new RITO collection, presented within the show, is inspired by Sonia Delaunay, an artist of Ukrainian origin who became a symbol of modernist Paris in the early twentieth century. The relaxed bohemian atmosphere of the RITO SS 2026 collection imagines the life of a creative Ukrainian woman in Paris at that time — among artists, within a space of freedom, colour, and experimentation.

From this vision emerge soft silhouettes and a sense of ease: numerous variations of City Pajamas, long kimonos layered over dresses and adorned with delicate beaded embroidery, as well as the layering of transparent textures within a single look.

As part of the introduction to 91LAB, the brand presented its FW26/27 collection, dedicated to the memory of Ukrainian sixtiers artist Liubov Panchenko. Both an artist and designer, she created vivid ornamental compositions that combined folk symbolism, decorative expressiveness, and a distinctly Ukrainian character.

The collection was created to preserve the artist’s memory and remind audiences of her creative legacy. Panchenko passed away following the Bucha occupation, and this work became a way for the brand to speak to her heritage through the language of contemporary fashion.

This show is about the movement of ideas through time — about how creativity can transcend decades, countries, and contexts. And about the fact that fashion, like history, is always moving in cycles.

Photo:  Volodymyr Bosak