Behind the Scenes

Getting ready for the upcoming Ukrainian Fashion Week SS25, which will take place in Kyiv from September 1 to 4, the UFW team reached out to the participating brands with a question: How is your brand coping with the full-scale invasion? This time, Marta Holod, the founder and creative director of the accessories brand MARTA HOLOD, shares her experience.

In the beginning, we were determined to stay in Kyiv. But in just a few months, after several missile strikes on the building where I lived and worked, I decided to move the MARTA HOLOD brand to London for the time being. The idea of ​​showing the world what Ukrainian designers are capable of became our mission and inspiration.

My British acquaintances were surprised: after only a week of living in London, the MARTA HOLOD brand participated in the Ukrainian Fashion Weekend event to support the Ukrainian economy and jointly, with the United Ukraine Fellowship, gather funds to help acquire prosthetics for war victims.

The most difficult thing in my professional life was to create the emotionally charged collection “Matches,” which I demonstrated as part of a special evening program of London Fashion Week in 2023 and dedicated to Ukraine.

I found a resource for my mental recovery and inspiration in participating in charity auctions. Once, an exclusive hat from the MARTA HOLOD brand was one of the lots. The woman who won it wanted an accessory to complement her look for the world’s most famous annual horse race, Royal Ascot, where members of the royal family are always present. Her order was a continuation of the theme and, at the same time, the beginning of the story of the creation of a new collection that I demonstrated at London Fashion Day.

The second source of my emotional recovery was the beauty of London parks. The collection inspired by them will be presented in Kyiv at Ukrainian Fashion Week SS25 in early September 2024.

Everything the MARTA HOLOD brand does is dedicated to Ukrainians, their souls, and hearts that burn and burn out, burn like matches, and emit the light. Each time, they burn to the end but rise anew from the ashes. And with these ashes, Ukrainians draw new meanings and new hopes.