Kyiv-based fashion brand SYNDICATE presented its new clothing collection as part of Ukrainian Fashion Week. The collection explores memory and how things transform under the influence of time
The collection’s personal memory aspect was inspired by designer Iryna Vasylevska’s family archive, including photographs of her parents, childhood belongings, and objects that later became personal artifacts.
The brand was also inspired by the aesthetics of older men’s wardrobes — their color combinations and garments worn for years ‘without a conscious desire to follow fashion’.
Beyond personal memory, the brand explores collective memory, its fragility, and transformation:
‘In this context, the question of how to preserve the memory of people, events, and the experiences we are going through right now — things that may later change, fade, or disappear, but must not be forgotten — becomes especially important’, SYNDICATE explains.
The brand also explored the interaction of the past and the present through the techniques and materials used. According to the SYNDICATE team, traditional fabric-processing methods were combined with modern technologies, while handcraft was paired with digital processes.
The brand used indigo dyeing, heat transfer, and experimental materials, as well as physical imprints of real flowers, which were ‘digitized, transformed, and brought back onto the fabric in a new form’.
Another theme explored in the new collection is the boundary between the real and the artificial. For example, SYNDICATE turned real objects into prints. The brand also works with the imagery of water:
‘…The sea from childhood memories, rain, a river. It has no single literal interpretation: water simultaneously preserves traces, distorts them, washes them away, and transforms them’.
About the show and performance during UFW
The show’s venue was styled to resemble Asian streets, inspired by Vasylevska’s travels to Japan and other countries across Asia.
The show concluded with a performance featuring water-soluble fabric, during which water ‘washed away’ the top layer of the models’ looks.
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It is currently unknown when the items from the new SYNDICATE collection will go on sale.
