The Ukrainian Fashion Education Group team presented a large-scale interdisciplinary project exploring the interplay between architecture, biodesign, and fashion. In the new UFW season, dedicated to craftsmanship and a contemporary interpretation of artisanal techniques, young designers are creating an exhibition that brings together physical and digital design, handcraft, and biodesign experiments.

“What grows after…” turns its attention to the post-industrial era — a time when industrial architecture and design continue to exist, becoming a foundation for new ideas, materials, and ways of creating. Massive industrial forms transform into a kind of ground from which new design solutions begin to grow.

The exhibition features fashion looks, art objects, and UFEG’s first biomaterials library.

One of the central objects is a dress made from seaweed-based materials. Within the exhibition, biodesign emerges as a process of “growing” new systems within the post-industrial environment — from natural raw materials to a finished design solution. Another layer of “What grows after…” unfolds in a digital fashion film created specifically for the project. For the first time, UFEG brings together digital design, AI generation, and documentary footage in a single story, creating a dialogue between the physical and the virtual. In the film, artists appear as creators of new realities, while hands become a recurring metaphor throughout the project. These are hands that sew and shape materials, create objects, and write code. Different ways of creating come together as one system, where physical, biological, and digital design interact. The visual language of the film also continues the project’s architectural theme: structures that inspired the physical designers’ work appear among flowers and natural forms.

One of the central objects is a dress made from seaweed-based materials. Within the exhibition, biodesign emerges as a process of “growing” new systems within the post-industrial environment — from natural raw materials to a finished design solution.

Another layer of “What grows after…” unfolds in a digital fashion film created specifically for the project. For the first time, UFEG brings together digital design, AI generation, and documentary footage in a single story, creating a dialogue between the physical and the virtual. In the film, artists appear as creators of new realities, while hands become a recurring metaphor throughout the project. These are hands that sew and shape materials, create objects, and write code. Different ways of creating come together as one system, where physical, biological, and digital design interact.

The visual language of the film also continues the project’s architectural theme: structures that inspired the physical designers’ work appear among flowers and natural forms. The film was created with the participation of the winner of the Ukrainian Digital Fashion Fest, held as part of Future Fashion Forum 2026, AI Production Specialist Olena Pavlidi.

“We are creating a precedent for interaction between artists who work with different materials, technologies, and ways of thinking. Today, fashion is finding a new place at the intersection of artisanal art, biodesign, and digital creativity. It is important for us to show that these directions can exist as a unified system. ‘What grows after…’ is our vision of what can grow from our industrial heritage and what fashion can become after it,” comments Marina Losieva, the project’s Artistic Director and founder of UFEG.

До створення фільму долучилася переможниця Ukrainian Digital Fashion Fest, що відбувся в межах Future Fashion Forum 2026, — AI Production Specialist Олена Павліді.

«Ми створюємо прецедент взаємодії між митцями, які працюють із різними матеріалами, технологіями та способами мислення. Сьогодні мода знаходить нове місце на перетині артизанального мистецтва, біодизайну та цифрової творчості. Для нас важливо показати, що ці напрями можуть існувати як єдина система. “What grows after…” — це наш погляд на те, що може прорости з індустріальної спадщини та якою може бути мода після неї», — коментує художня керівниця проєкту та засновниця UFEG Марина Лосєва.