LOVE TO UKRAINE by Tetyana Golota at Vancouver Fashion Week Tuesday April 23, 2024

LOVE TO UKRAINE is a tribute to Ukrainian culture, and is a contemporary reflection of how its historical crafts,fabric woven, hand made and intricately embroidered and cross-stitched, appear on clothing and accessories, musical instruments, home furnishings, buildings and more. I encourage you to learn more here. Its brilliant colours, usually on a white background, depicting flowers, birds, animals, people, includes, for this collection, many outfits with special 'patches' and pictures of toys. The runway show opened with a model carrying a teddy bear, which represents children impacted by war. Our clothing tells our story and the toys remind us that children, our future, are the most profoundly affected. Removed from home and country, survival taking precedence over play, traditions lost, life lost, so much at stake here. While a reel on my instagram has music and dance (Dovbush Dancers, directed by Debbie Karras) and costumes by Janice Black, Costume Treasurer at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre, these photos show the toy motifs up close. Thank you, Tetyana Golota for bringing the blue and yellow flag of the Ukraine, to Vancouver Fashion Week. For every collection, there is a dynamic video and a vibrant background, always different, always teaching. Here is my previous coverage of Tetyana's LOVE TO UKRAINE shows from 2023 and 2022. Tetyana is an ECO Stylist, bringing thrifted and fabrics and accessories and upcycling them for her collections. She always models and wears her designs in her daily life. For this and other collections, she uses family heirlooms and pieces made and donated by her community. Many of us wear blue and yellow, when LOVE TO UKRAINE is on the schedule. We see, we learn, we remember. I love Tetyana's vibrant green dress with the giant teddy bear on the front. When asked which of her looks is her favourite, she says...all of them a have unique features and designs and history. Very much like each of her LOVE TO UKRAINE fashion shows, all different, all exquisitely designed and all with the message PEACE FOR UKRAINE!

Image via Tetyana Golota

Image via Tetyana Golota

Image via Tetyana Golota

Image via Tetyana Golota