Amid Air Raid Sirens and Shelter Shows, Ukrainian Fashion Week ‘Unbreakable’

A young woman in a long, red, silk dress, with matching lipstick and a heart-shaped purse with a gold strap, waited to enter the bomb shelter, where a runway show would shortly go on regardless of the air raid sirens sounding overhead. It was Saturday afternoon, Sept. 5, four days into Ukrainian Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2027 season. Just the day before, a Russian drone attack had struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, in downtown Kyiv in the middle of the afternoon, injuring at least a dozen people.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Attendees of Ukrainian Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2027 line up outside a bomb shelter at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Besides the woman in red, other guests were similarly dressed to the nines – some in heels and silks – all filing underground as the sirens sounded overhead. There was no panic, just the practiced calm of people who have lived with this for years. The woman in red found a seat among rows of folding chairs, and the shelter became, for a couple of hours, a runway: shows by designers Darja Donezz and Vorozhbyt&Zemskova, scheduled back-to-back that day, went on right there, rather than wait out the alert. Other Topics of Interest Keeping the Bridges Open As Russian drones disrupt daily life in Kyiv, Ukraine must keep its physical and social bridges open through war. Model walks the runway in a bomb shelter at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex during Ukrainian Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2027 in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) It was two of three times this season that Ukrainian Fashion Week moved its runway shows into the shelter at the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex – the third was the day before, when an air alert cut into designer Viktor Anisimov’s finale and he chose to keep going underground rather than wait for the all-clear. All of the production of these Ukrainian brands is based in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian Fashion Week CEO Yelyzaveta Ushcheka, the increasing number of daytime attacks made holding Fashion Week more challenging. “Before, we had more attacks at night, and that’s why it didn’t interrupt Fashion Week,” Ushcheka said. “So, it was around… I’d say, 10 air raid alarms in four seasons of Ukrainian Fashion Week. It wasn’t that challenging – well, of course it was – to have the Fashion Week during the full-scale war – but especially this season we faced more challenges.” A scene from Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) This season brought together roughly 50 Ukrainian brands across runway shows, presentations, and a trade show. As Business of Fashion reported, brands participating pointed to gains at home and abroad: stronger domestic sales and an expanding footprint in international retail. No matter what the circumstances, we’re still moving forward And when the schedule didn’t hold at Fashion Week due to Russian attacks, the audience adapted. One show was delayed by more than two hours, but guests stayed anyway: “Everyone understands we live in the fifth year of this full-scale war, and we cherish what designers are doing, because they are creating – despite all of this destruction and bad news,” Ushcheka said, adding, “all of the production of these Ukrainian brands is based in Ukraine.” Ukrainian Fashion Week CEO Yelyzaveta Ushcheka at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Fashion coordinator Anastasia Kochenko, who has worked with Ukrainian Fashion Week for four years, echoed that sentiment. This season, she said, was especially challenging because of the sirens and the broader security situation, but the team pushed to deliver everything they had planned – not just for clients, but to send “shiny hope” to the wider fashion world that the event still exists and still works. A scene from Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) “The first thing that comes to my mind is the word resilience – because no matter what, no matter the circumstances, we’re still moving forward,” she said. “Regardless of the location, we’ll try to showcase the designers, to bring this energy to the people who are willing to see the show.” She reflected on the historical significance of holding a fashion show during wartime, saying: “In 20 years, people will be discussing, like, ‘Ukraine did this fashion week, that fashion week’ – and at the end of the day, we managed to do it.” Fashion coordinator Anastasia Kochenko at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Designer Daria Chuprina, whose eponymous brand Chuprina has shown at Ukrainian Fashion Week for 16 years by her count, said that last September, her show was canceled due to air alarms. But this year it happened, and on the main stage versus the shelter. “So everything’s great,” she said. Still, “there are very mixed emotions, both for the team and for me. It’s very hard to work in today’s conditions.” Designer Daria Chuprina at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) However, Chuprina, who is originally from Donetsk and relocated to Kyiv because of the war, put it simply: “People feel unity – that’s why we’re all here.” A piece from designer Daria Chuprina's collection, modeled at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Craft, continuity, and a new book on Ukrainian naïve art This season’s official program placed particular emphasis on craft. At the heart of the season was the “Behind the Craft” exhibition, dedicated to Ukrainian crafts and their contemporary reinterpretation by Ukrainian designers – presenting craftsmanship as a tool for innovation and the preservation of identity. That theme was echoed by Gunia Project, the Kyiv design house co-founded by Maria Gavryliuk and Natalia Kamenska. Gunia Project co-founders Maria Gavryliuk and Natalia Kamenska at a Gunia Project store in Kyiv, September 2026. (Photo: Olha Bryhynets) “Today we are re-opening our new store with new reconstruction, and we are also presenting our last project – the book that we have published with Assouline about Ukrainian naïve [art],” Gavryliuk said. It’s quite hard to develop your brand right now in Ukraine, but we have our mission, we have our vision. The book, “Naïve My Love: Ukrainian Folk Art of the 20th Century,” written by journalist Anna Lodygina, features roughly 40 self-taught painters and sculptors. The book, “Naïve My Love: Ukrainian Folk Art of the 20th Century,” written by journalist Anna Lodygina. (Photo: Olha Bryhynets) Gavryliuk and Kamenska drew a direct line between that research and Gunia’s design practice. In fact, the word “Gunia” is itself a piece of traditional Ukrainian clothing. “It’s like a Carpathian woven coat, made with Ukrainian traditional technology, and it was the first item that inspired us to discover Ukrainian artisans and Ukrainian culture and create new objects,” Gavryliuk said. “The main idea is to re-translate our tradition in new design objects.” Ceramics at Gunia Project store in Kyiv, September 2026. (Photo: Olha Bryhynets) Kamenska and Gavryliuk were candid about how difficult that work has become. “We are facing lots of troubles and lots of challenges – with electricity, with logistics, with people going to the army or moving out of Ukraine,” Gavryliuk said. “It’s quite hard to develop your brand right now in Ukraine, but we have our mission, we have our vision, so we’re trying to keep going and keep growing.” Fashion as rehabilitation: adaptive clothing on the runway One of the week’s most emotionally charged shows came from designer Yuliia Perekriostova’s label Juliya Kros, whose recent collections include adaptive clothing for people with disabilities, including war veterans. This season’s runway show culminated with two war veterans, each walking with a prosthetic limb, leading the other models down the runway. Yuliia Perekriostova at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) “Walking the runway like this, wearing something beautiful and fashionable – that’s a form of rehabilitation,” Perekriostova said. “Fashion reflects what’s happening in society; it plays out on the runway. Fashion can’t be separate from what’s happening around us. Everything going on, we express through clothing, through our brands. Through this show, we’re broadcasting our reality.” Wounded soldiers walk the runway at Ukrainian Fashion Week SS27 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026 for Juliya Kros. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Designer Khrystyna Rachytska presented a collection this season titled “Opora/Opir” (Support/Resistance), drawing on more than 20 years of working in Ukrainian ethnic style, a practice that began, she said, when she started collecting traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts a decade ago. A dress designed by Khrystyna Rachytska presented as part of her “Opora/Opir” (Support/Resistance) line of clothes. The dress was presented at Ukrainian Fashion Week SS27 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) “It’s only by having that support, having our Ukrainian land beneath us, that we can create anything after everything we’ve been through,” she said. “Our men and women are fighting on the front lines with their bodies and their weapons, while we fight ours through diplomacy and culture.” Designer Khrystyna Rachytska at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Getting to Kyiv from Lviv wasn’t simple either, she said – air raid alerts sounded the entire way, and once there, the week’s disruptions meant repeated trips into shelter. “We’re hostages to the challenges facing Ukraine,” she said, “but we want to show and share as much as we possibly can.” A win closes the season The week closed on a triumphant note. Designer Oleksandra Sakhaudinova won the Grand Prix at “Look Into the Future. New Forms of Reality,” the finale of Ukrainian Fashion Week’s 27-year-old young designers’ contest, for a collection titled “Reclaiming the Light,” drawn from Sonia Delaunay, Oleksandr Ekster and Kazimir Malevich. Designer Oleksandra Sakhaudinova at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) Getting it to the runway was its own ordeal: days before the show, she shipped her pieces via Nova Poshta – then watched the carrier’s sorting facilities get hit by Russian drone strikes in the Kyiv region and Odesa. A piece from designer Oleksandra Sakhaudinova's collection, modeled at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) It wasn’t until the day of her show that she found out that her whole collection was safe and that she’d have an opportunity to present it. On the runway during wartime Ukrainian model Kateryna Miikluha, who walked in several shows this season for designers including Juliya Kros and Pustovit, said this was the most on edge she had felt at a Ukrainian Fashion Week in some time. Ukrainian model Kateryna Miikluha at Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac) “A few days ago, there was an alarm almost every hour,” she said. Even so: “I’m so excited – it’s an amazing season, amazing moods, so I’m very happy.” Miikluha modeled in Milan for several seasons starting in 2021, and later in Turkey, before deciding to base her work in Ukraine after the full-scale invasion began. I can’t leave my country when everyone is suffering. “I was in Milan when the war started, and I was living with a Russian girl, and I thought something is not right in my life. So, in March, I returned to Ukraine and started to take fewer contracts abroad,” she said. Asked why she chose to keep working in Ukraine rather than abroad, she said: “I can’t leave my country when everyone is suffering – it feels like it’s right.” Asked what it says about Ukraine and Ukrainians that fashion shows continue, including inside air raid shelters, Miikluha offered a single word: nezlamni – roughly, “unbreakable.” “It means I don’t know what can break us. Like, nothing,” she said. A scene from Ukrainian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 at Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in September 2026. (Photo: Jeremy Dirac)