Nadiia Oksiuta, an injured civilian, and Dmytro Tereshchenko, a former soldier who lost a leg, in the centre of the room, during Ukrainian Fashion Week in Kyiv. Photo: The New York Times
Ukrainian Fashion Week is back in Kyiv. The event first returned last year, after being suspended in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Life had to continue, the organisers said, even if fashion, like everything else in Ukraine, has been marked by the war.
At this year’s fashion week, in early September, the models who attracted the most attention were not the thinnest or poutiest but those who had lost limbs. Often, they were former soldiers.
Many said they were more comfortable in T-shirts, shorts and sneakers than haute couture, although they loved the feel of the fancier clothes.
Of the more than 50 designers who showed off new lines, at least 10 highlighted models who were missing limbs.
In a country where tens of thousands have lost at least one limb, it makes sense to create outfits tailored to people with prosthetics.
The designers call it adaptive fashion, with zippers, snaps, Velcro, rubber waistlines and custom-fitted clothes.
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“It sends out a big message,” said Dmytro Tereshchenko, 21, a former soldier who started modelling after losing a leg.
“A message that says, inclusive fashion exists.”
This was the first fashion week for Nadiia Oksiuta, 32. Before she appeared onstage, she said, she felt as if her heart were pounding out of her chest. It was how she felt before her wedding.
The mission was “to inspire other people who have scars not to be ashamed of them and not to hide”, said Oksiuta, who suffered debilitating burns in 2023 when a helicopter crashed in her neighborhood. Her daughter was also hurt.
Tereshchenko, whose right leg was amputated after he was injured in a battle in the Luhansk region in 2023, wants to become a professional model.
He said that the night before the show, his newborn baby kept him awake. But his nerves were fine.
Tereshchenko, a boxer and swimmer, said sport had been vital for his physical and mental recovery.
Tereshchenko and Oksiuta walked together in two shows for the label Andreas Moskin. Tereshchenko said the decision to feature models with disabilities showed “that we can be on the same level as people who walk international runways”.
After the 2022 invasion, some international mass-market retailers pulled out of Ukraine.
But smaller Ukrainian designers stepped in to fill the gap, and Ukrainians started buying their clothes, partly motivated by patriotism.
During fashion week, the war was ever-present.
An air-raid alert delayed the Andreas Moskin show, and Russia sent 810 drones into Ukraine that night.
The alerts continued the next day. Models took cover in a basement and had their makeup done outside a bomb shelter entrance.
Still, the show went on. And models with artificial limbs got the coveted last walking spots of new collections.
Kristina Sanina, 29, an army captain who lost both her legs, received a standing ovation when she appeared on the catwalk during the Juliya Kros show wearing a striking mauve dress with zippers, flanked by the clothing line’s director and the dress designer, who both steadied her.
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Some people in the audience were in tears.
While the military will not say how many soldiers have lost limbs, one nonprofit that provides prosthetics put the total for both soldiers and civilians at 80,000.
Andreas Bilous, one of the designers for Andreas Moskin, said the company had put adaptive fashion and models with disabilities at the core of its work.
“They are not abandoned,” Bilous said. “We push them forward and show that they are examples worth following.” – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
