Angel for Fashion is a brand new e-commerce platform that sells the wares of 30 Ukrainian designers. The types it presents are eclectic: There are breezy attire impressed by conventional Ukrainian designs from the Foberini label; cheekily glamorous seems from Frolov; and macabre leather-based choices, like Kofta luggage and Bob Basset masks and harnesses.
“It’s one of the most thriving and vital atmospheres,” Alina Bairamova, the artistic director of Angel for Fashion, stated of her nation’s vogue trade.
“Meeting the world was inevitable,” she added. “It has just sped up the process by the war.”
Angel for Fashion was the brainchild of Jen Sidary, whose résumé contains stints at Zappos and Vivienne Westwood. The website works on a dropship mannequin, with Angel for Fashion taking a share of gross sales in trade for internet hosting the merchandise on its website. Orders positioned on the positioning are forwarded to the designers, who deal with achievement and transport, the price of which is included within the garment’s worth.
Currently, there are greater than 800 objects obtainable, though some merchandise can be found solely for pre-order or include caveats that transport may very well be delayed due to provide chain logistics in a rustic at struggle.
Some of her designers, Ms. Sidary stated, by no means stopped sketching, stitching and designing, whilst their metropolis and nation got here beneath assault. Others have repurposed their operations to assist the struggle effort, relocated inside Ukraine or are touring forwards and backwards between Ukraine and neighboring international locations.
“I did throw on the site that it could take up to six months only because I prefer to not over-promise and under-deliver,” Ms. Sidary stated of potential transport delays, talking through Zoom in her smoky Southern California accent. “I mean, I hope things don’t take six months.”
She added proudly that the positioning could be obtainable globally, besides in Russia and Belarus, which she known as “Bela-Russia.”
Ms. Sidary was having fun with a celebratory tequila on the rocks. Her nails had been painted fluorescent yellow, the center fingers painted blue in what she stated was a kiss-off to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. “They’re growing out — at some point I’ve got to get a new manicure,” she stated. “But to get this live in three weeks, I’ve literally been working 17-hour days.”
The concept for the web site got here to Ms. Sidary on the finish of February, when she returned to West Hollywood after showcasing six Ukrainian designers in New York. In a macabre coincidence, that showcase opened simply someday earlier than the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.
Since transport clothes again to Ukraine was not an choice, Ms. Sidary took 4 of the designers’ collections again to her one-bedroom house. She additionally took in Valery Kovalska, a designer specializing in surprising tweaks to fashionable fundamentals, who additionally occurred to be in New York in the course of the invasion.
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“I couldn’t just leave her in New York like a sad baby Ukrainian designer, so I was, like, ‘Girl, just come to Los Angeles with me,’” she stated. The two girls had met only some occasions when Ms. Kovalska moved to Ms. Sidary’s sofa, the place she lived for practically a month.
On Sunday, Ms. Kovalska was packing her suitcase to stick with buddies of buddies within the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles. “I just moved because I still wanted to be friends with her,” she joked, not desirous to overstay her welcome on the sofa.
“Luckily, I’m physically safe here,” Ms. Kovalska stated, whereas additionally noting the obligation she felt to Ukraine. “So now my mission is to work hard to bring money to the country. I’ve got 25 employees, and I’m still paying their salaries while I’m sleeping on the couch.” She has been sending deadstock and samples to her workers in Ukraine who’re in want of garments.
“At least they’re going to have a really fashionable wardrobe now,” she stated with fun.
Ms. Kovalska believes within the imaginative and prescient of Angel for Fashion. “I really hope it’s going to be a big business for her and for us, too,” she stated. “It’s not just a charity event. It supports our industry.”
Ms. Bairamova, like Ms. Kovalska, was in New York on enterprise when the invasion began and now could be staying with buddies on Roosevelt Island indefinitely. For her, the inauguration of the positioning was emotional, each when it comes to the work she had put into it and the potential affect for Ukraine, the place her household stays.
“It turns an unfortunate event into something that can be so fulfilling and so promising for the future,” she stated.
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