On October 23, 2024, a lecture by Liudmyla Klymuk, a practicing fashion designer and curator of art projects, was held for first-year students of the Department of Art and Fashion Design. The topic of conversation within the discipline “Fundamentals of the Fashion Industry” was the Ukrainian traditional costume, the experience of its research, reproduction and modern interpretation.

Liudmyla Klymuk studied at KNUTD, after graduation she worked as a researcher at the Ukrainian Center of Culture and Arts “Ivan Honchar Museum”. Fascinated by the idea of recreating the Ukrainian national costume, together with like-minded people she created a workshop of authentic costume “Noble Clothing”, in which she was engaged in the reconstruction of the national costume and sewing of modern ethno-style clothes.

The designer explained to future professionals what the practical value of folk tradition is, what approaches there are to developing modern clothing based on authentic Ukrainian samples, and how they are implemented in the modern fashion industry.

Liudmyla Klymuk paid special attention to the issue of popularizing knowledge about Ukrainian clothing, modern means of digitizing museum and ethnographic collections, and talked about her own participation in specific projects. In particular, the “Origins” project is a display of authentic Ukrainian costumes from private collections on the catwalk of the Ukrainian Fashion Week in 2015. Vintage clothing was presented by the Ukrainian Institute of Fashion History under the supervision of Marichka Kvitka; the show was supported by the National Center of Folk Culture “Ivan Honchar Museum”. The role of a professional designer was also important in another ethnographic project called “Legacy”. It created a cycle of short atmospheric videos dedicated to the history of national clothing, from FILM.UA Group and with the participation of the Ukrainian Institute of Fashion History (2017) as well.

Today Liudmyla Klymuk is the head of the “Open Chest” project, the goal of which is to preserve for future generations priceless evidence of Ukrainian history and culture in digital form, make samples of unique clothing available for educational purposes, research and reinterpretation in the context of modern fashion.

During the lecture, the designer focused on the importance and project value of using the manifestations of Ukrainian mentality, national self-identification and creative expression in the activities of modern domestic fashion brands; applying historical creative experience, as well as successful Ukrainian artistic practices.

The meeting took place in an atmosphere of lively interest, the students and teachers of the Department expressed their gratitude to Liudmyla for an exciting and useful story!

07.11.2024