Lili Litkovskaya is a fashion designer who utilised Paris Fashion Week to urge support for Ukraine, the home she was forced to flee from that she trusts will soon be free.
At 6am on the day Russia invaded my home, my ex - my daughter's father - and I decided not to leave. We then changed our mind, having spent all day wasting time debating it, but ultimately we had to think of our little baby, she is only two and a half years old. By 5pm, we were fleeing Kyiv.
I packed in five minutes, it was crazy. We drove to the border of Poland then on to Krakow where I spent a couple of days with my baby at a hotel my ex drove back to Kyiv to take up arms and fight), then I took a flight on to Milan where my baggage was lost. My five minutes’ worth of packing gone, but none of that mattered to me. Not after what I saw on the journey to get here.
At the Ukrainian border with Poland, there were so many queues of people and crowds waiting to leave. Women with really small children, I knew I couldn’t cross the border without helping some of them. We picked up one woman with an 11-month-old son who had not eaten since they left. She didn’t have the right international documents for the baby, but after 12 hours of waiting the officials at the border agreed to let her pass. The next day, at our hotel in Poland, we saw a girl who had broken her leg in that crowd of people – that’s how dangerous it had gotten in the crowds.
My daughter is so small that she doesn’t understand what’s going on, she travels a lot with me – even at one month old she came to fashion week with me - so she is somewhat used to the chaos. But the rest of my family, they are still in Ukraine and I am so worried. I asked my mum to come with us but she refused. She’s still in the city where the Russian army are now based, half of it is completely destroyed. She spends days in a shelter, I am still trying to get her transport to another place that is safer. I feel heartbroken thinking of her.
Looking at my home, there are pictures of the road I lived on completely demolished. My lovely Kyivdestroyed. Before this, I had such a full life. As a fashion designer, I have a big production team – some of whom are still in Kyiv, working through the air raids and bomb sirens still - and two years ago I opened a school for young designers.
Just last year, I was dressing President Zelensky’s wife, Olena – who is a beautiful woman, I loved working with her, and I trust we will again in the near future when Ukraine is rebuilt and united. Every day was different, busy but full of beauty and community. These days, we can really appreciate every minute we get to be together. And particularly, every moment we get to create together.
That’s why for Paris Fashion Week instead of the collection I planned to show, which I could obviously no longer (as it is still in Kyiv), I held a showcase to encourage the rest of the fashion industry to support Ukraine. My dream is that, because of this showcase, all international media and influencers will show their followers what’s going on in my country and support Ukraine with their voices.
I erected a 30 metre Ukrainian flag in La Bourse, the home of the Tranoi Paris showcase. I hand-sewed fresh yellow flowers onto the yellow section of the flag and on the adjacent wall put up 45 QR codes that takes the scanner to a different Ukrainian creatives’ Instagram page. I wanted to make sure that, although they couldn’t be there in person, my fellow Ukrainian creatives were acknowledged and represented at Paris Fashion Week.
I always planned to do a presentation with different creatives from Ukraine in Paris, which Litkovskaya the brand was also going to be a part of. Of course, without my collection it wasn’t what I planned, but I chose to continue regardless and with the support of Pascal Morand and the Fédération de la Haute Couture added the showcase to the official PFW schedule.
As part of Paris’ official anti-war rally last Saturday, I invited the fashion community to gather under the statue of Marianna – France’s enduring symbol of freedom and democracy – on Place de la Republique, and march together onto Place de la Bastille.
It feels important right now to show unity more than ever. The fashion industry includes millions of influencers that have followers that listen to them, these people can show to the world what’s going on and use the opportunity of being at Paris Fashion Week to support Ukraine with this showcase.
To the rest of the world, I want to say that Ukrainians are strong. We are creative. We will have freedom again.
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