Ukrainian brand PLNGNS presented an interactive installation at Ukrainian Fashion Week, highlighting the brand’s social mission. The team engaged visitors in creating upcycled pieces from sneakers. DTF Magazine takes a closer look at the idea behind the project, as well as the brand’s show at Berlin Fashion Week
About the presentation at Ukrainian Fashion Week
Among the set design elements were a Ukrainian flag reading ‘Free Mariupol Defenders’ and a banner with the slogan ‘Russia is a terrorist state’. The central element was an interactive installation: on one side, guests could explore finished PLNGNS pieces from the show, process visualizations, and the stages of garment creation. On the other, they were invited to assemble their own prototype using provided patterns and elements from sneakers.
After the presentation, the prototypes created by participants will be turned into finished pieces and distributed through a charity auction or a raffle on the brand’s social media platforms. All funds raised will be directed to support a military unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where relatives and friends of the PLNGNS team are currently serving.
About the collection at Berlin Fashion Week
The ERROR AS ASSET collection consists of 30 looks that ‘frame waste, mistakes, and imperfection as assets within contemporary fashion systems’.
The collection brings together two of the brand’s lines: ICONIC, featuring handcrafted garments made entirely from used sneakers, and SIGNATURE, which combines deadstock fabrics and defective production leftovers. Reducing the number of sneaker elements ‘allows the brand to release limited capsule collections that remain true to its circular philosophy’.
More on PLNGNS’ upcycling process and jackets made from sneakers, which take over 80 hours to create, can be found in our documentary series created in collaboration with Burn Energy.
As the brand’s founder, Mitia Hontarenko, told DTF Magazine, the collection contains many hidden references.
‘We wanted to convey messages related to Ukraine and highlight what concerns us in our professional practice’.
The collection includes political statements, such as a ‘WAR’ version of the Pepsi logo, referencing brands that have not left the Russian market and continue to pay taxes there. It also features prints related to Donald Trump and the current U.S. administration.
Instead of the word ‘Trump’, the designers used ‘TRASH’ with the slogan ‘Make savages great again’. The collection also featured another symbolic element — a U.S. flag tied around the model’s hips, styled in black and white and complemented by the Russian coat of arms.
Other prints focused on environmental themes. Through them, PLNGNS aimed to draw attention to sustainable fashion by using reimagined logos of well-known brands. In particular, New Balance was transformed into the slogan ‘keep balance’, while Nike’s Swoosh and tagline became ‘just recycle it’.
All of them were created in collaboration with Ukrainian designer and creative director Alex Babariko.
What some international media called a ‘winter fairytale’ was actually a ‘frostbite’ look by stylist Gianni.vas. This aesthetic choice is the brand’s metaphor for the harsh reality of Ukrainian survival in winter.
‘Makeup functions as a social testimony: visual references to frostbite and snow reflect the lived reality of Ukraine, where targeted attacks on civilian energy infrastructure have left populations without electricity and heating, embedding an ongoing humanitarian crisis directly into the show’s visual language’.
