The industrial Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk isn’t an obvious location for a fashion shoot. But a new campaign from Marc Jacobs features the city, home to the project’s model Sasha Melnychuk.
The brand posted shots from the campaign on its Instagram page in late February-early March.
The series portrays Melnychuk among family and friends in a normcore take on Ukrainian life: a school gym, a bedroom and the inner suburbs of Kremenchuk, a city of 225,000 people located 327 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
Marc Jacobs joins a long list of brands that have produced shoots in Ukraine that spotlight post-Soviet grit, an alternative to the glossiness of the West.
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Sasha Frolova, the New-York based Ukrainian photographer who shot the series, wrote on Instagram that Melnychuk left Ukraine at 13 to model in Tokyo, where she worked to support her family.
Today Melnychuk lives in New York and has become a leader in the business, modeling in campaigns for Alexander Wang, Vetements and Rick Owens. Vogue called her “one of the most versatile (and hotly in-demand) faces in the industry today.”
The campaign from Marc Jacobs’ celebrates provincial Ukraine with its Soviet color palette and crumbling infrastructure, which place the clothes’ saturated tones in surreal contrast.
In one of the shots, Melnychuk poses with her mother, both dressed in the same chic outfits from Marc Jacobs’ spring collection while standing on a bridge made of broken concrete slabs.
In another, an outstretched hand holds a suede handbag, with the “Kremenchuk” welcome sign in the background painted in fading yellow and blue.
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The model also appears in other photographs with a brother, a cousin, a grandmother and a group of relatives in outfits Melnychuk styled herself. “Meet the Melnychuks,” a caption reads.
The project in Kremenchuk isn’t Marc Jacobs’ first in Ukraine. The brand also shot a campaign in July that featured Ukrainian ballerina and model Sonya Mohova posing on Odesa’s beaches and in a sunflower field.
