On Wednesday afternoon the Ukrainian Creative Director Lilia Litkovska presented the FW 25/26 Collection “3 a.m. – traverse“ of her eponymous label LITKOVSKA.
Set in Marché Paul Bert Serpette, located in the heart of the Paris Saint-Ouen flea market, at first arrival the audience was greeted with 3 rolled down black roller shutters of a storage unit. A suspenseful moment of raising up those roller shutters one by one revealed an assortment of furniture fully draped in white paper, finished with jute ribbon and arranged in a way that emulates home interior. The observant eye could also catch sculpture-esque art objects wrapped in newspaper and carefully placed on tables in the back.
The setting, abstracted to mere shapes, met heavily clothed models who, after completing the catwalk, lined up in front of the backdrop and gradually fused into the interior design. The collection employed a concise autumnal color palette of greys, greens, browns and black complemented by cream-colored fur pieces and an oversized Canadian Tuxedo in denim blue.
We saw the designer’s interpretation of classical pieces adding cuts, belts, wide pleads and draperies added onto oversized wool coats and blazers and boxy, clean-cut overcoats. Each look is an exercise in layering, which seems at times excessive but is very much in line with the return of layering we have been witnessing in recent RTW collections. Among the various leather goods, which in addition to bags also include garments, one particular item stands-out as a strong contender to become an it-piece: a rectangular, black, pouch-esque oversized clutch with a handle adjustable through a silver zipper.
Echoing the equipment for high alpine hikes, the stylish glacier sunglasses are in reference to the expedition that the designer undertook to Kilimanjaro together with Olga, Mikhailo, Oleksandr, Vlad and Roman. Five Ukrainian soldiers who the designer considers to be dear friends of hers.
Almost all of the models wore ski masks, frequently referred to as balaclavas. The headgear is named after the settlement of Balaklava on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which became a battlefield during the Crimean War of 1853 – 1856. British troops were provided with knitted hats as protection against the climatic conditions of the Russian winter.
Current political developments are also materially integrated into the collection. For this, the designer uses newspapers which she had carefully collected over the past three years. They all contain headlines relating to and including important coverage of the presently continuing Russo-Ukrainian War.
Newspapers are an ever-impressive stylistic device in fashion, editor José Criales-Unzueta shares an overview on this subject here.
The collection‘s nod to the aforementioned five brave Ukrainian soldiers, all left amputated after 3 years of the on-going recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War and who climbed the mountain Kilimanjaro in prosthetics, comes just at the right moment: only a mere days ago Ukrainian president Zelenskyy had to brave president Trump‘s belittling reprimand during a television broadcast. The LITKOVSKA FW 25/26 collection is a dedication to Ukrainian fortitude in the face of such imposition, symbolizing the overcoming of challenges.
Later,
Jeanne-Ange Wagne
