Fashion designer Anna Kolomoyets, known as Anna K, will become the first Ukrainian designer to present a collection at the New York Fashion Week on Feb. 15.
But that’s not all: She is also the youngest designer to have ever taken part in the New York Fashion Week, one of four most prominent fashion show weeks in the world.
“Being on its schedule and doing the show there means getting into the top league of the fashion world,” Kolomoyets says.
Kolomoyets, 20, launched her Anna K brand four years ago. Since then, she gained devoted fans and buyers worldwide, as well as good reviews from international fashion critics and observers. The designer made her first foreign show at the London Fashion Week in 2013.
The London breakthrough was followed by the success of her t-shirt line “Fashion Scout” in 2014 at Pitti Immagine, annual international fashion and designer exhibition in Italy’s Firenze. After the exhibition, Italian luxury retailer Luisa Via Roma and French clothing store Collette started selling Anna K t-shirts.
Today, Anna K clothing is sold in 40 clothing stores in 25 countries.
It is not only her talent or peculiar style that led Kolomoyets to the world fashion league. Kolomoyets has a talented curator: Daria Shapovalova, founder and creative director of Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days and owner of More Dash, a sales and public relations agency that represents Ukrainian designers at home and abroad.
Shapovalova has been promoting Anna K from the very beginning and now four years of their joint efforts are crowned with the New York show.
“Anna K show in New York is extremely important for the entire fashion industry in Ukraine. It’s the biggest step Ukrainian fashion ever made,” Shapovalova says. “The fact that a Ukrainian designer is included in the official program of the New York Fashion Week is an incredible success for Anna K and the result of her hard work.”
Anna K’s show is scheduled at noon, between famous American brands Tommy Hilfiger and Jeremy Scott. The collection to be presented at the New York runway is called “Guest from the Future” and is created for young and energetic people, the designer says.
“My heroine feels everywhere as if she is not from here. She’s from the future, as if she is from space,” Kolomoyets says.
The collection has 50 looks and nearly 100 items. Most of the clothes are sewn from Italian fabrics in Kyiv. The leather jackets were produced at a factory in Florence, and the shoes were made in Milan.
Shapovalova is certain that “the audience will appreciate Anna K’s take on colors and silhouettes, and the main mood of the collection.”
Shapovalova expects the New York show to give a real boost to the brand.
“We are experiencing a very good moment for Anna K. Her future New York show attracts lots of buyers,” she says.
After the New York show, Kolomoyets will present the collection at Milan Fashion Week scheduled on Feb. 24 – March 1.
