Ukrainian fashion of the 1990s was as young as its newly restored independence. It was a mix of avant-garde, experiments, and a desperate search for beauty.
Fashion shows looked more like theatrical performances than collection presentations, and only a few people wore clothes by Ukrainian designers.
In 1997, Ukrainian Fashion Week — the first Fashion Week in Eastern and Central Europe, took place in Kyiv’s Actor’s House. This is where Lilia Litkovska, Svitlana Bevza, Ivan Frolov, Sasha Kanevskyi, Ruslan Baginskiy, and dozens of other talented designers began their journeys.
If the Orange Revolution in 2004 gave an impulse to reinterpret traditional Ukrainian clothing, then the Revolution of Dignity triggered a true fashion earthquake. Wearing Ukrainian-made clothing became fashionable outside of the home. Vita Kin’s vyshyvanka dress was worn by Demi Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dita Von Teese, and even Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. In the fall of 2014, a pop-up showroom of Ukrainian designers opened in Paris and was attended by none other than the legendary Anna Wintour. What started as an adventurous hobby turned into a serious industry.
The full-scale invasion did not halt this progress — Ukrainian designers demonstrate resilience and are rapidly taking the world by storm. Ksenia Schnaider signed a contract with Adidas and designed her first collaboration with the global superbrand. Ruslan Baginskiy designed hats for Madonna, Ivan Frolov made dresses for Beyoncé. Bevza was chosen by Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson, Emily Ratajkowski wears IENKI IENKI, Naomi Campbell fancies Litkovska. There are hundreds more examples — each deserving a round of applause.
Ruslan Baginskiy founded his brand in 2015. He drew inspiration from the classic silhouettes of Ukrainian headwear of the 20th century and reinterpreted them. The following year, the Baker Boy Cap — a stylized peaked hat — became a global hit. Baginskiy created exclusive headpieces for 2 of Beyoncé’s world tours: Renaissance and Cowboy Carter.
His hats are worn by Bella and Gigi Hadid, Sharon Stone, Kaia Gerber, Taylor Swift and Rihanna. Madonna is a true admirer of the brand. In July 2018, for the cover shoot of Vogue Italia, Baginskiy created a hat with a lyric from her new album.
In 2023, Baginskiy became the only Ukrainian to win one of the world’s most prestigious awards — a French ANDAM Fashion Award. And in 2025, he celebrated the brand’s 10th anniversary with a historic event: at the invitation of Paris’s Galeries Lafayette, one of the world’s most famous department stores, he designed 12 main window displays and presented a pop-up.
Baginskiy’s story is one of craftsmanship, perseverance, and courage to follow a dream. A truly Ukrainian success story.
Ivan Frolov tried to sew his first dress as a child, when his sister had nothing to wear to her graduation. 20 years later, FROLOV dresses can be seen on Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and Jennifer Lopez.
ЗThe brand’s breakthrough came when Beyoncé chose a FROLOV gown for her first performance in 4 years — at the opening of a hotel in Dubai. The handcrafted sheer pink mini dress, adorned with gold-plated metal elements and embroidered with white and gold crystals, became a hallmark of haute couture. That was the beginning of Frolov’s collaboration with the global pop diva.
At Ukraine WOW we present a favorite outfit of another superstar. Sabrina Carpenter regularly performs in a FROLOV Heart mini dress — at her concert in Los Angeles, during The Eras Tour, and at festivals like Coachella and Governors Ball. Only the color changes — from bright pink to pastel yellow. But the heart… The heart remains Ukrainian.
Modern Ukrainian theater could have vanished after Les Kurbas and Mykola Kulish were executed in Sandarmokh. Or it could have become nothing more than a tool of Soviet propaganda. And yet, even under those conditions, scenographer-conceptualist Danylo Lider, directors Serhii Danchenko and Les Taniuk, and curator Serhii Proskurnia created and lived by their own rules. The theater could have remained marginal and provincial, lacking support from the young Ukrainian state. But even without it, Vlad Troitskyi launched GOGOLFEST and Andrii Zholdak created a phenomenon of European significance in Kharkiv.
In 2025, Ukrainian theater has its own recognizable style, a steady presence in the programs of top international festivals, and immense support from its audience. Theater has not just entered the mainstream — it has gone to TikTok. Clips from The Witch of Konotop or Cabaret get millions of views. The popularity of Ivan Uryvskyi, Davyd Petrosian, MUR, Schmalgauzen, and the Dykyi Theater can be compared to that of rock stars. And each of them uses that popularity wisely — not only to gather thousands of people at their performances, but also to raise millions of hryvnias for the Ukrainian army.
Kurbas would have been proud.
The founders of the MUR creative collective (Oleksandr Khomenko, Viktor Tkachenko, Oleksandr Zaika, Mykola Shmundyr, and Maria O’Reilly) started out with educational videos about Ukrainian cultural figures, amassing millions of views on Instagram. But they truly broke through in February 2024 with the release of their album Ty [Romantyka] (Red [Renaissance]): 17 tracks transported listeners into the era of the Red Renaissance and told the story of the residents of the Slovo Building. 2 months later, the premiere of the stage production of the same name took place at the October Palace. Since then, MUR has been sold out everywhere, every single time.
At the end of August 2025, MUR presented their second musical, Rebelia [1991] (Rebellion [1991[) — the story of national resistance from the Khrushchev Thaw to the collapse of the USSR and the restoration of independence. Not only did they repeat their success, they surpassed it.
Since he was a kid, Oleksandr Khomenko has known the world’s most celebrated musicals by heart — from Moulin Rouge to Hamilton. His great dream is to create a Ukrainian production of Broadway scale. MUR is moving toward that dream at full speed.
