In March, a new Ukrainian brand ALCHEVSQUE, founded by Anton Ivanov, co-founder of CREVV design agency, Yegor Lytvynenko, frontman of «Deti Deputatov», and Tanya Liuta, head of product department at Big Money University, started operating. The first drop of the brand is dedicated to the war in Ukraine, and half of the profit will go to RE:Ukraine by Balbek Bureau, a project to build modular housing for resettlers.
The brand’s first drop included black oversize T-shirts with the numbers 24.02 and the scheme that most Ukrainians used to tape up their windows to protect themselves from the shock wave.
«The print has another meaning if you dig a little deeper. It doesn’t help much if the window breaks. The window should be taped up tightly, almost completely. But most people, myself included, do this and hope it helps. This is the naive folk design and a lot of optimism, and this is something we want to talk about», Anton Ivanov explained in a comment for DTF Magazine.
The clothes are now in production, and ALCHEVSQUE will produce a total of 100 such T-shirts. You can place your pre-order on the site. The price is 1800 UAH, and the delivery is carried out all over the world (except russia and belarus).
The brand team has already announced several designs that may be released in future drops. Among them are T-shirts with the words Don’t Shoot Civilian and with a crossed-out name of the city of Alchevsk in the Luhansk region, the birthplace of one of the founders.
Anton Ivanov came up with the idea of launching ALCHEVSQUE a long time ago, and he created the first sketches for the prints back in 2018. The name of the brand refers to the name of the city where the designer grew up: «the city, which is located inside three large factories and is saturated with hard work».
«Alchevsk shaped my visual taste, attitude to work and deep respect for ordinary people, the working class. ALCHEVQUE brand is a kind of compilation of visual aesthetics that is close to my heart. The main markers of the brand are technical aesthetics, work uniforms and folk design».
The team planned to present the first drop «literally in one week» before the full-scale offensive on February 24. Anton specified that they wanted to donate some of the proceeds to foundations that help IDPs from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
«The war has made its adjustments. It’s strange to launch a brand at a time like this, but I’ve been putting it off for so long, so maybe now is the best time», the designer added.
