The All-Ukrainian contest for young fashion designers “Look into the Future” announces a Residency program for the finalists of this year’s contest.

The intensive Residency program, which will take place in July, is designed to provide young talents with practical tools for developing their own brands, immerse them in a professional environment, and provide mentorship support from leading experts of the Ukrainian fashion industry.

The curator of this year’s contest is Katya Silchenko, founder and designer of the brand the COAT by Katya Silchenko. She will head the Residency, and the COAT space will become a creative hub for the finalists.

The finalists will work on refining the sketches of their contest collections under the guidance of Katya Silchenko and leading Ukrainian designers—members of the Ukrainian Fashion Council, including Julie Paskal, Nadya Dzyak, and Maria Gavryliuk.

The Residency program will offer finalists a unique opportunity to visit production and creative spaces, as well as meet with the teams of the brands FROLOV, GUZEMA, J’AMEMME, and LITKOVSKA.

The Residency lecture program, which the contest finalists will attend, will address the most pressing issues for an emerging fashion brand. Young designers will study the “new consumer” and strategic forecasting tools during a lecture by Professor Liana Bilyakovych. The path of a collection from idea to finished samples and the calculation of collection costs will be covered in a lecture by designer and creative director of the brand PDLN, Volodymyr Podolian. Content creation and other tools for brand and media interaction will be discussed in a lecture by fashion journalist and founder of the channel “Zhirnym Shriftom” Roman Timofeev.

The Residency participants will also have a Q&A session with the co-founder and CEO of Ukrainian Fashion Week, Iryna Danylevska, which will accompany a screening of the documentary film “SPRING-SUMMER”.

For creative inspiration and broadening the horizons of the young creators, the Residency program will include an introduction to the notable cultural events of Kyiv in July. Participants will visit the “Disparates” exhibition at the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Art and attend a theatrical performance

The Residency program combines professional development and artistic inspiration, providing participants with a deep foundation both for preparing for the contest final, which will take place in September as part of the official Ukrainian Fashion Week program, and for building their path in the industry.      

The main partners of “Look into the Future. New Forms of Reality” are Visa | PrivatBank. This strategic partnership focuses on the consistent support of the younger generation of designers as the industry’s future and a key driver of a sustainable economy. For the second consecutive year, Visa and PrivatBank are joining the All-Ukrainian Young Fashion Designers Contest to invest in rising names. In this dialogue between fashion and finance, the partnership serves as a powerful tool for long-term change and sustainable development, despite the challenges of modern reality.

The Contest Partner is AQUA Myrgorod, a modern Ukrainian water producer shaping a new culture of natural beverage consumption. The company combines Ukrainian heritage with advanced technology and a functional approach to its products.