Ukraine Designer Evokes the Pain of War at NY Fashion Show

The flag of Ukraine is projected on a wall at a showcase of designs by Svitlana Bevza in New York on September 13, 2002 Yuki IWAMURA AFP
The flag of Ukraine is projected on a wall at a showcase of designs by Svitlana Bevza in New York on September 13, 2002 Yuki IWAMURA AFP
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Ukraine Designer Evokes the Pain of War at NY Fashion Show

The flag of Ukraine is projected on a wall at a showcase of designs by Svitlana Bevza in New York on September 13, 2002 Yuki IWAMURA AFP
The flag of Ukraine is projected on a wall at a showcase of designs by Svitlana Bevza in New York on September 13, 2002 Yuki IWAMURA AFP

Fashion shows rarely begin with a moment of silence, but that is what Ukrainian designer Svitlana Bevza did Tuesday night for her country to decry the Russian invasion.

She went on to present a collection rich in patriotic symbols.

Bevza is an old hand at New York's Fashion Week, where she has appeared since 2017. She is based in Kyiv and has her workshops there but was forced to leave after the invasion in late February, and its endless explosions and sirens, to protect her two children.

Her husband Volodymyr Omelyan, a politician who was a government minister from 2016 to 2019, stayed home to fight. You can see him on her Instagram account, dressed in military garb and carrying a gun, AFP reported.

Bevza's spring-summer collection, entitled 'Fragile motherland" and unveiled at a building on Wall Street, was highly political. The blue and yellow Ukrainian flag was projected onto a wall.

"Some people maybe do not understand that this is going for real. And today is the 202nd day of war in Ukraine. And there's thousands of people dead," she told AFP.

"I was forced to leave the country with my kids. And my husband is at war," she added.

She presented tops that are sensual when worn with skirts or pants but still recall bullet-proof vests. Some look like shields that expose the shoulders and navel.

Grains of wheat -- symbols of fertile Ukraine as a bread basket to the world -- have a narrative stream through the collection. A Bevza necklace depicts them, charred black because "a lot of wheat was burned by Russians," she said.

The ample cut of some of her skirts also recalls the fit of Ukrainian farm women harvesting wheat.

"There is a deep sacred meaning of the bread itself and the wheat that came through centuries," she said, pointing to famine in the 1930s that was blamed on Stalin.

"What we protect now, we protect the fertile lands. And what we are basically fighting for is to live free, to live in peace in our land," the designer said.



Adidas Holds Back on Profit Upgrade Due to Tariff Uncertainty 

The logo of Adidas is seen on a Gazelle sneaker for sale at a shop in Berlin, Germany, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
The logo of Adidas is seen on a Gazelle sneaker for sale at a shop in Berlin, Germany, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Adidas Holds Back on Profit Upgrade Due to Tariff Uncertainty 

The logo of Adidas is seen on a Gazelle sneaker for sale at a shop in Berlin, Germany, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
The logo of Adidas is seen on a Gazelle sneaker for sale at a shop in Berlin, Germany, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)

German sportswear maker Adidas on Tuesday said higher US import tariffs and broader uncertainty around trade were clouding its forecasts and making it difficult to plan.

CEO Bjorn Gulden said the company would have hiked its revenue and profit guidance for 2025 after strong first-quarter results, but tariff uncertainty meant it decided to hold back.

Adidas expects the blanket increase in US tariffs to eventually cause price increases across all its products, but said it was currently impossible to quantify those or to establish the likely impact on US consumer demand, highlighting the paralysis caused by trade uncertainty.

Adidas has already reduced exports of China-made goods to the US to a minimum but is still "somewhat exposed" to much higher US tariffs on Chinese goods, Gulden said, though it is unclear how long those might remain at the current level.

"Given the uncertainty around the negotiations between the US and the different exporting countries, we do not know what the final tariffs will be. Therefore, we cannot make any 'final' decisions on what to do," Gulden said.

Unexpectedly high US tariffs on Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, announced at the start of this month, but paused until July, blindsided sportswear brands, which make most of their sneakers and clothing there.

As tariffs raise the cost of doing business, Adidas said it would strive to ensure US retail partners and consumers get product "at the best possible price", adding it would try to compensate for uncertainty in the US by boosting its performance in the rest of the world.

First-quarter sales rose 14% in Europe and 13% in Greater China and were up 26% in Latin America. Sales in North America increased just 3%, which Adidas said was due to the phase-out of its Yeezy sneaker line.

While sticking to its full-year guidance, Adidas said uncertainties "could put negative pressure on this later in the year".