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? In this article, designer Nadya Dzyak, the founder of her namesake brand, shares personal reflections with the editors.

NADYA DZYAK studio and production have been based in Dnipro for 16 years. We were creating a new collection when the full-scale war broke out.

This was the last day our big team was in one studio together.

This was the eve of the day when the terrible war took all of this away. It took away our ability to create and scattered people all around the world. On the sofa in the NADYA DZYAK studio, different pieces of fabric and samples of pleats and frills were left lying as if they were frozen… and February 24th became forever engraved on the calendar.

The NADYA DZYAK team is like a family, sharing common values and aspirations, kindred spirits who have been together for many years. In June 2022, we began gradually returning to work, and almost the entire team gathered again to create and keep moving forward.

Soon, our customers began to contact us: some to buy a new piece, others to share how they kept a tracksuit for comfort, and a NADYA DZYAK dress for peace of mind in their go bag. We’ve also begun receiving orders from international boutiques.

We could resume our work thanks to the uninterrupted functioning of our trusted partner, the Kharkiv textile enterprise. We have been working with them for ten years as they produce our brand’s signature pleat. Additionally, many contractors and other partners returned to work after the break. It was a signal for us to take action.

The love and support of our customers, along with the strong family bonds within the NADYA DZYAK team, have been crucial in our continuous development. We believe in our strength and resilience, and we showcase our collections in Paris every season. We founded the Alliance of Ukrainian Women Designers (UFWIA) to offer mutual aid and support and took part in the Under Sirens project, and now the clothing of Ukrainian designers being exported abroad carries the label: “This product was made in Ukraine under the sound of sirens.”

In recent years, thanks to the Ukrainian Fashion Week’s “Support Ukrainian Fashion” initiative, we have participated in several international Fashion Weeks in London, Malta, and Lisbon. We are proud that after the show at London Fashion Week, our interview was published in The Independent newspaper, which once again wrote about the destruction of the Kakhovskaya Dam by the russians and about the House-Museum of the Ukrainian artist Polina Raiko. Additionally, we constantly participate in charity events, attend to the needs of animal shelters, donate, fight, do our best, believe in our victory, and know that light will certainly prevail over darkness.