Fashion as an instrument of a successful business
End of summer was marked by a bright professional event in the world of fashion – from the 27th
till the 30th of August 2014 in Kyiv the Kyiv Fashion international vogue festival was held.
Annually the exhibition attracts attention of owners and managers of light industry enterprises,
buyers, designers, as well as fashion connoisseurs. There is a strong reason for this, as it was
namely there where people could learn the peculiarities of the upcoming seasons first hand and
assess offers of the participating companies. Kyiv Fashion is a specialized event aiming at
broadening the business relations and searching for new opportunities for B2B fashion business.
During the ceremony of the official opening of the Kyiv Fashion festival the executive director of
Ukrainian Association of Light Industry Enterprises “Ukrlehprom” Tetiana Izovit welcomed opening
of such a platform, as it was needed by Ukraine’s fashion industry. Also, she gave her view on the
situation in the industry: “Opening of yet another edition of the Kyiv Fashion exhibition confirms
the importance of the market of light industry products in Ukraine, as it has huge potential, and it
is interesting for suppliers and investors. It is a pleasure for me to notice that a large number of
national manufacturers participate in such an event. This is a very good sign, especially under the
present conditions of the general decrease of production volumes. In this situation there are
positive nuances when some spheres of the industry increase production volumes. A situation like
this can be observed in footwear sector. We hope that the situation, which is now influencing the
national manufacturers greatly, will allow implementation of a reform for all entrepreneurs, which
would make conditions equal for everyone in the local market, thus following the best European
standards. Peculiarities of the next season in Ukraine will be motivated by the economic situation.
Yet we understand that life is going on. People need clothing. As Mykhailo Voronin once said, “Any
country, any economy shall always spend on food and clothing”. These are the two spheres, which
are obliged to have their local manufacturers for meeting the internal consumption demand, and
the present situation just proves it. Today there are necessary preconditions for development of
national manufacturers. We are ready to work, increase production for both local market and the
foreign ones.”
The fashion festival is organized according to the principle of zoning, including division of
exhibitors according to their profiles: Underwear Salon, Leather and Fur Salon, Kyiv Expo Style,
Kyiv Textile, Expo Techmash, Kyiv Fashion Kids, Buy Fashion Business, Handmade Fashion, Eco &
Ethno Fashion. This season, the collections of men, women and children ready wear, underwear,
leather and fur, accessories and textile.
Some participating companies shared their opinions, plans and impressions from the exhibition:
Liliia Pustovoi, manager at Dyka Orkhideia Ukraine: “The exhibition is a good one, with a lot of
clients. At every exhibition podium shows are held, and they are interesting to visitors. Every
edition we establish new contacts, find new clients – we take very much from the exhibition”.
Irina Kuryuchkina, director of the Komilfo company: “We have been participating in this exhibition
for nine years already, twice a year. There were a lot of visitors, though many of our customers
could not come. To tell you the truth and to be realistic, now it is hard time and the crisis is
developing, but we could not fail to come, as we cannot lose the market. I am glad we had some
success, some new clients, orders, and the most important thing is we keep working”.
Alina Sakhatska, brand manager at the Samange company: “The exhibition was good for us, we
had new clients, and the old ones came to make orders, too. Our clients do not leave us, they stay
with us – and this makes me think everything is going to be alright”.
Svitlana Gedz, manager, VoolyaTM: “My impression from the exhibition is a very good one: here
people are pleasant, there are lots of wholesale and retail customers interested in our models from
the new collection. We have heard many opinions, pieces of advice and comments. In future we are
planning to exhibit new interesting models for our clients in order to make our joint business in
Ukraine more successful and to dress our women beautifully.”
Olena Ocheretna, general director, the Zhasmin group of companies: “It is great Ukraine has such a
project. I think in future it will play a huge role in development of light industry in our country.
Nothing prevented us from doing our work – starting from security service and ending with the
organization of the exhibition hall itself. We are thankful to the organizers and planning to
participate in the Underwear Salon exhibition all the coming seasons.”
Business program is an important component of the festival, the events of which aim at organizing
constructive dialogue between experienced players and beginners of the fashion market, give
necessary and actual knowledge. This time at the Kyiv Fashion exhibition the seminars were held
by the successful and renowned persons, well established in the professional fashion strata: Olga
Kalashnikova, Henadii Tkachenko, Svitlana Prokhorovska, Liana Biliakovych. Speakers shared their
experience and knowledge, gave pieces of advice thus inspiring the audience for further advance
and business development. Topics of the seminar were chosen in the view of the latest changes in
all over the world in general and in the sphere of fashion in Ukraine in particular: “Non-fashionable
management of fashion shops”, “Actual fashion tendencies of the coming seasons. How trends are
set”, “Branding and merchandising as main instruments of positioning and promoting products of
fashion industry”, “Psychology of shopping or… what shall we know about customers in order to
increase sales?”, “Increasing direct sales, what is the secret about it?”, “Unique tendencies of
post-crisis fashion: symbiosis of street style, mass market, haute couture. Forecast for 2015-2016”,
“Forecasting global trends for the next five years (2015-2019)”.
Round table on the matters of sector enterprises functioning under current conditions was
another actual and important event at Kyiv Fashion. It was organized by Kyiv International
Contract Fair, Ltd., the Ukrlehprom association and All-Ukrainian Union of Light Industry Employer
Enterprises. It became a good opportunity for the industry specialists and fashion business experts
to discuss the current situation in the market and the factors influencing it. The main topics of
professional discussion were: possibilities of entering European market and certification problems,
prospects of cooperation with the CIS countries, work of enterprises in the zone of the AntiTerrorist Operation, foreign currency operations, customs etc. The aim of the round table was to
help Ukrainian enterprises of light and textile industry to adjust their work in the current
conditions.
This edition, the trend zone of Kyiv Fashion demonstrated the topic Reflection. It is known that the
tendencies developing in Western Europe or in the USA are not always widely spread in Ukraine.
This is true not only in terms of the clothes stylistics, its silhouette forms and proportions,
decorative and texture solutions, but color and image in general. Though trends are thought not to
have nationality, we can observe they are adapted for mentality and peculiarities of a certain
market. The aim of the trend zone was to show the main trends already reflected by Ukrainian
fashion market through the prism of individual interpretation avoiding direct citation. For
formation of the trend zone garments, underwear and accessories of Ukrainian manufacturers and
designers, as well as those of French and Polish trade marks were used.
During the four days of the festival it was full of business, yet light and easy atmosphere. The tone
was set by the bright collection shows at the main podium and at the exhibitors’ stands. Designers
showed their views on fashionable image of the new season during the contest of fashionable
clothes “Autograph”. The winners of the contest were:
 In the “Fantasy” nomination: creative tandem “DOUBLE ME” with the “Emigration”
collection;
 In the “NEO” nomination: Maryna Forbatok with the “Reggae” collection;
 In the “NEO-Profi” nomination: Sofiia Rusynovych with the “Simple Lines” collection.
Next season will be opened by the Kyiv Fashion international vogue festival on February 4-7, 2015.
Official website of the festival: www.kyivfashion.kiev.ua