What is a perfect woman? She’s beautiful, womanly, dressed well. Moreover, she is sensible, wise, hard-working, loving wife and mom. Do you think there are no women like this? We found them! About cultural diplomacy, slow fashion and national Ukrainian clothes we’ve been talking with Zhytomyr citizen Anna Kozak, designer of Ukrainian brand clothing KOZZACHKA.
“I love modernize clothes. Traditional methods are also cool, but it’s more for museums. I think, people have to implement own sight in clothing, own attitude and taste. Every vyshyvanka-shirt has to differ, be one and only for each person.”
“I strive to step aside from vyshyvanka. This dress is “the vyshyvaniest” we have. The dress is incredible, one of my first works. It’s not classic one, there are Ukrainian elements as well. Sleeves and cover are traditional. This is one of my favorite dresses, and all who buy it are satisfied, because it can be worn even with shoes”
“I am not interested in Slavic, namely Ukrainian motifs. Russians or Polish have different things, and I’m interested in ours, Ukrainian. We want to show the traditional casual style. It is very important! To these things worn in any season, any time, and that people want to wear this things more often. I’m trying to make boho. These are overlapping, interweaving traditions of comfort. It seems that designers worked hard on the style. I waited for it from 1996. God, when will these sketches be drawn? Actually 20 years I waited until boho became popular in Ukraine”
“When I lived in Ireland, I brought a shirt as a gift to a friend. She was impressed by colors, brushes and said: “What a beautiful tunic, I like it! I always wanted to have this.” It was this festive clothing, not ordinary and with tears in her eyes once told me: “I did not think that one day I will have one of it. I regret that you have a national dress, but we do not”
“We need to promote our clothes overseas – a cultural delight is useful. From politics people get tired, do not take much: in each country there are their problems, and through art and tradition, they are immersed in another cultures. Politics is above and inside and traditions are held in the depths of human consciousness”
“From the culture and mentality of the country where the show takes place, the perception of the material is taken into account. In Ireland we were doing art exhibitions, exhibited works by Marina Mykhailoshynoi – painter who did the illustrations for the children’s version of “Poet”. The Irish were in complete ecstasy! The exhibition «Ukraine Trough Fairytales» was in the tourist center of Dublin. Visitors were not only Irish, but also visitors from Australia, New Zealand. People came out enthusiastically, because they were delighted with the style. Marina is very, very interesting artist. She brought home all the artwork in the living form. It was such an interesting Irish couple who are sixty years old. They asked to buy the last two copies of the books that were our models. These were tales of Ukrainian publishing “ABABAHALAMAHA.” We were not going to sell them – they were the last copies. We were much requested. We asked them why Ukrainian language books, they are not even able to read them, even in Cyrillic letters. We were told that these stories can be told by illustrations and it turned out that they were elementary school teachers and they were buying books for their students, inspiring their children, such an amazing couple”
“I wore girls on display during Ukrainian Fashion Week in Canada. They waited for long time for our yellow-blue dresses, they wished to present it, argued, who’ll put it on. It was even a little jocosely. Everyone loved it, bought a lot of Ukrainian things. Overall, it was a very interesting experience”
“Are designers monumental? (Laughs) No, it’s not about us”
“Our exhibition received a lot of positive feedback. We collected a lot of money – the Irish are very generous. Charity is part of life. They are very concerned that the new culture came to them. I dealt with cultural diplomacy in Ireland and on occasion will again deal with this”
“I worked with Yudashkin and I started training in Zhytomyr, in school, and then studied in Vinnytsia for cutter, then in Moscow at the Academy of Fashion. It was the first private institution based on the French school ESMOD, very respected and well-known in France. There were no Ukrainian motifs at all as if there was not such. Back to those days I always missed my home,for rowan in the yard, so good, plentiful. It was not too far – only night by train. It was not about emigration; I wanted and then came back. No passport control or customs and if Ukraine is in the heart, you will never take it away!”
“Minimalism – it’s cool, it’s now a world trend, and I support it too. For me it has always been much more organic than waste. I try to buy things deliberately, so as not to clutter up the world in which there is the crisis of overproduction. In Europe, there is a massive excess of production. This trend is felt in nature and in the minds of children – they are all devalued. They so gently encourage people to buy things. You can pay a little more but buy something valuable that you will keep in the closet for 8-10-15 years instead of buying something fleeting. Of course, such things should be, too, but you do not need a lot, just for mood. This does not need to get involved. Children of my friends, friends of my daughter saw a sort of “explosion”: nothing can be found, not very high quality, nothing much appreciated. I am for “slow fashion” – so-called flow. No fast-food or fast-fashion, only “slow fashion””
“My husband waited for my shirt for five years, maybe was even desperate that he will have at least one (laughs) But now he wears it with great pride. He likes vyshyvanka very much, even though for him it is also the tunic. Actually, this is not the classic embroidered shirt and a slightly sporty version.
Second yeah the shirt waits for my son. He asks me to finish it quickly. He had vyshyvanka, but he has grown from it. I promised that by the summer it will have been finished. Now Bomber jacket with Ukrainian elements is being made for him”
“My kids are a little different: their own childhood memories, their stories. They are now different; these are children of another world, another culture. When the father is of one culture and mother has another, and all live in a third country, children do not know the boundaries of one culture, all cultures are regarded as global. They are citizens of the world”
“We have cool team. We work for almost two years and did not lose anyone. Girls come and stay. I hope that it will last forever, because we work for the same goal. We are ideological girls!”
“We love the bright, noticeable things in common wardrobe. Let this thing be wanted to be worn because it brings joy. This is our idea and concept”
“I would like not to serve to rich ladies, but young people and make them fit into their clothes, their look, so it was native for them. One little vyshyvanka is not enough. There are a lot of things. For example, red linen pants or culottes. I foresee that this will be the hit of the season this year! In general I like when we take our ideas and sew ourselves. If you cannot afford to buy expensive exclusive author’s model, you can make your own model with Ukrainian elements such as lace insert, brushes or ask grandma to do embroidery velour jacket. We must give people ideas and if someone wants to do something, it means our goal has been achieved”
P.S. Things of Kozzachka by Anya Ko can be bought in the shop “Vsi svoi” in Kiev.
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
