Kyiv Pop Up Store opens Antwerp Fashion Weekend, with performance by Eurovision winners Ruslana (Antwerp)
Yellow-blue color combinations, a trident against the wall and a catwalk with models showing Ukrainian garments. Whoever walked into the Kiev Pop Up Store on the ground floor of the Antwerp Stadsfeestzaal on Thursday evening, imagined that they were at a fashion parade in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
For almost four weeks, nineteen designers and artists from the haunted country exhibit their self-designed fashion lines, paintings and jewelry. The lion’s share of the proceeds will go to various hospitals in Ukraine, where they use the money to buy prosthetics for war victims.
The opening of the Kyiv Pop Up Store was an event with a smile. That’s also why each has a badge pinned with a broad-smiling emoji. There was also a lot of laughing, dancing and singing. Even by Ruslana, the world-renowned Ukrainian singer who plays with the energetic wild dancing won the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.
Everyone has their own war story
Yet every existence also had its sadness, its own story. Also by being absent. Designer Nikolay Palonyi has his Sumish brand hanging on the second floor. But he can only see that through forwarded photos. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country to enlist in the military.
Anastasiia Berlizeva, a 17-year-old girl from the city of Ternopil, is there. But she also signed up with more luggage than just the suitcases on February 23, a day before the Russian invasion, the very last plane to Milan. After wandering through Paris, she and her mother ended up in London, where she now lives temporarily.
“I designed my collection in a hotel room in Paris,” Anastasiia, who says attended the Lviv Fashion School and has released three collections. “I signed, watched the war news on television, started crying, and signed again.” The result, “but with a lot of love”, is now here in Antwerp.
Hope that lives again
The war also left traces on Rina Rox, a 33-year-old fashion designer and painter from Kiev. Her clothing line consists mainly of the colors green and chocolate brown. Green as a symbol for the spring that the Russians have taken from her. The chocolate color symbolizes autumn and the hope that lives again after the recent military successes.
“While I was walking down the street looking for food on day three of the war, a woman walked by with makeup and high heels. It was an image I didn’t expect, but I didn’t expect to keep designing. Today I released a line of garments that you can transform into different outfits and fold into a small backpack. For those who have to leave quickly.”
All items of clothing straight from Ukraine, loaded into a truck and driven here by Roustam Kharisov, a beer from a guy from Lviv. He also has his war story. He supplies foodstuffs to the Ukrainian army. Think brood that lasts extra long for the elite troops that carry out operations behind enemy lines.
He was in Kharkov when the major counter-offensive began, in the haunted city of Kramatorsk and most recently in Bakhmut, the focal point of the frontline in the well-deserved Donetsk province. “Am I afraid?”, he returns the question when he says that he has seen the missiles fly over his head. “Why would I? You can only die once.”
The Kyiv Pop Up Store is a collaboration between the Fashion Weekend and the St. Andrews Charity Foundation of former former top model Liliya Watson (39), who currently lives in Antwerp. “A small country like Belgium has given us a new home. Now it is our culture, mode for us to share taste with you.”
The Antwerp Fashion Weekend will run for a whole weekend. The Kiev Pop Up Store is open until October 22.
Ruslana: “Keep organizing events like this”
Singer Ruslana, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, came directly from Ukraine. Since the invasion of Russia, she has mainly been involved in voluntary work there. “For security reasons, I prefer not to disclose my location,” she says. “Usually we are constantly on the move. I maintain contacts with the army, with people who have been forced to leave their homes and provide help. From foodstuffs to bulletproof vests.”
With her performance in Antwerp, she wants to encourage artistic and creative Ukrainians here. “Come together and keep organizing like this. Even though Putin has also hurt a lot.” During her presence she created a photo gallery with images of the war in Ukraine. “Belgium is an important political center internationally. I have to show the war in my homeland here.”
In recent months, Ruslana has also been in the US, the Netherlands, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. “I get invitations from all corners of the world, but I will only leave Ukraine if I feel I can surprise people of leaders to support our country even more. Or if I can influence the sanctions policy against Russia.” (grvr)
Nico Volckeryck to the city of Antwerp: “Sever ties with Saint Petersburg”
In his speech at the opening of the Kyiv Pop Up Store, Nico Volckeryck, regional director of the Neutral Syndicate for the Self-employed (NSZ) and chairman of Antwerp Retail Promotion vzw, gave a sneer at the Antwerp city council. He thought it was impossible that the city is still twinned with the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
“I’m ashamed to be an Antwerper tonight,” said Volckeryck. “I hear Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld) lashing out at the ‘Russian attacks and war crimes’ in Ukraine. And at the same time, our city is quietly twinning with Saint Petersburg.” He argued for twinning with the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. “In Ukraine we don’t have any ties. Let’s get to work on that as soon as possible.”
It is not the first time that the Antwerp city council has been criticized for the link with Saint Petersburg. In February, just after the Russian invasion, Young CD&V Antwerp urged to suspend or break its sister ties with the city. The city of Antwerp did not break, but it was decided to immediately suspend all projects and the memorandum in progress. There was also a ban on ships flying the Russian flag from docking during last summer’s Tall Ships Races. (grvr)