Bevza (Q3884)
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Bevza is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Bevza |
Bevza is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Svitlana Bevza was recently looking through her brand page on Vogue Runway and noticed that the first look in her collections was always monochromatic white. The color, by now an integral part of her brand identity, is also a grounding point for the minimalist Ukrainian designer. While neutrals are often predominant in her collection, this season she added emerald and navy shades.For Bevza, the longevity of her pieces is an important thought that grounds her design process: traditional polo shirts were upgraded with a square front accent and a high neckline, while the hemlines of pants and skirts had a shirt cuff-detailing for a slightly deconstructed look.This season, Bevza added shoes to her offering. Soft leather flats with an elastic band in the middle came in buttery yellow, classic white, and patent black. The designer recommends wearing them with the backs folded like babouches for a more casual vibe.
13 December 2024
Looking at a collection by Svitlana Bevza is like that first breath of fresh air the morning after a rainstorm, a fitting reference for this season’s offering titled Dew in the Sun. And while Bevza was most certainly thinking about dew, she was also thinking about her home country of Ukraine. “The dewdrops in the morning look beautiful, but the title of this collection is also a phrase from our national anthem,” she explained. “It’s a very encouraging message—‘our enemies shall vanish like dew in the sun’—and we wanted to take that and conceptualize it into the pieces in the collection.”The Bevza we are very familiar with tends to stick to a more neutral color palette with little to no embellishments, but this season the designer added some subtle hints of sparkle and shine. A dewdrop-shaped strapless black taffeta gown was adorned with tiny crystal teardrops that, from afar, bore a resemblance to the drizzle left on leaves. A Bevza collection isn’t complete without a reference to wheat (a vital crop in Ukraine): Gold wheat-shaped ornaments accessorized the collection in the form of belt buckles, necklaces, and tie pins. Her signature black corset was ornamented with the motif alternating from shimmering gold to a murkier black, which Bevza emphasized was to showcase the history of Ukraine. “The intention with the mixed metal was to refer back to 2022. The bombs destroyed the fields of wheat, and that’s how the burned spikes looked,” she said.This season, the designer skipped a runway show for her twice-a-year showings in New York. Storytelling is always a big part of her process; she wanted the public to experience it themselves. “I try to find optimistic notes in what I’m doing. And Bevza’s storytelling keeps me in perfect shape, even in dark times,” she said. Starting tomorrow, regardless of whether you work in fashion, you’ll be able to visit the Ukrainian Institute of America to take a look and enter into this chapter of Bevza’s life.
7 September 2024
Svitlana Bevza breezed into her temporary Paris showroom apartment, an elegant, serene space off the bustling Bastille, straight from the Eurostar looking impossibly unruffled by the hassle of Paris traffic snarls or the soaring temperatures.For spring, the designer said she wanted to focus on three main themes: crisp lines, staples in white denoting optimism, light and energy—“because it’s the only way,” she said—and Ukrainian symbols, but handled with a subtle touch. Wheat spikelets, already the baseline for the brand’s top-selling drop earrings and supple necklaces, amped up contrast with dark-burnished elements (evoking scorched earth) sprinkled in among the gold ones. Those will be immediately recognizable for customers in the know, but also covetable for people who aren’t. A new range of small, origami-like bags with magnetic closures also played on the spikelet theme with a versatile twist: they can be worn flat for a shoulder-carry or cleverly folded into a grain-shaped bourse with a wristlet that leaves hands free to juggle other things.Bevza's bees, which she was able to glimpse in her Ukraine garden only briefly this spring, naturally offered up another source of inspiration, as well as the name of this collection: “Pasika,” or apiary. Honeycomb shapes—clean, crisp, variable—neatly expanded on the brand’s popular mermaid dress, slipping in as negative space on the sides of a black shift, or as geometric embroidery at the waist or placements at the bust on a slip dress. Elsewhere, the theme found a more abstract expression on an angular white jumpsuit, a funnel-neck beige windbreaker, or a white vegan leather bomber. Speaking of mermaids, a brand new swimwear line gave the house signatures an extra measure of depth.
26 June 2024
As a Ukrainian designer, it was meaningful for Svitlana Bevza to showcase her collection at the Ukrainian Institute of America. As a nonprofit organization donated by an inventor, William Dzus, it focuses on promoting the art, music, and culture of Ukraine. It also set the perfect backdrop to Bevza’s minimally aesthetic clothes that a formerVoguecolleague, Liana Satenstein, described as “rich bitch clothing” backstage, a fitting term for a show that was able to get Lauren Santo Domingo and Derek Blasberg into the front row.Symbolism is a key aspect of the designer’s collections, with last season focusing on the marigold, and this season’s focus being grain. As one of the country’s main cultural exports, Bevza wanted to tie it into her collection through square-cut apron dresses that came in a variety of fabrics, like eco-leather and viscose. “It was a metaphor for me in a way, that we bake a lot of bread for a lot of countries in the world,” she said. Elsewhere, the Tisto vest (which means “dough” in Ukrainian) was hand-knitted to mimic the texture of a braided bread pattern.Styling remains important at Bevza’s shows, and this season the designer was focused on portraying an old-school elegance, fitting for society’s obsession with quiet luxury and swan culture. An excellent example was a split collar shirt and paper-bag-esque trousers that cinched at the waist with a thin leather belt. For outerwear, Bevza focused on an A-shaped silhouette inspired by a traditional 19th-century Ukrainian coat called a Kozhukh, which comes in two variations: sleeveless and not.While Bevza traditionally sticks to a more neutral color palette, she added hints of gold and brown to pay homage to the color of wheat fields. The progression of the shades of brown lightened as we got closer to the finale, a symbol of when wheat is ready to be harvested. It may not have been intentional, but with a Bevza collection, there is always a clear beginning and end.
14 February 2024
Svitlana Bevza made a sexy return to New York after showing in Paris for just one season this past March. “Last season, I wanted a more intimate atmosphere and to show the collection static. We just did a presentation,” said Bevza. “But I love shows and New York, so I never planned on moving from the New York Fashion Week calendar.” For her spring 2024 collection, Bevza opted for polished clothing with a subtle hint of sexiness. From the front view, you could see the sleekness that her clothing usually entails, but from the side and rear, you noticed slits that came right up to the panty line and satin bralettes just slightly peeking through backless pieces. Trousers slit with a built-in boxer showing through would be fitting for the transitional spring weather.Stepping away from her usual palette of white and black, the collection featured bright oranges and reds inspired by marigolds. The common flower that can be found almost anywhere in the world means a little more to Ukrainians like Bevza. “In Ukraine, it symbolizes love for the motherland and revival. I remembered how my grandfather gave me these seeds and I planted them on my balcony one year. And now, every year, they grow,” said Bevza. She ensured that the marigold stayed close to the heart, pinning the flower at the center of the chest for select looks. Marigolds were incorporated as a print in the collection, with the flower peeking out underneath the sleeves of blazers or layered underneath sheer panel dresses.This season, she also included accessories like leather bags and pageboy caps. “We made five very classic models. It’s an investment piece that can serve you for years because of its minimalist design and good quality. I’m hoping it becomes a vintage piece that people will have forever,” said Bevza. As for the pageboy cap, which is traditionally worn by men, she wanted to make it women-friendly. She asked, “Why do men only wear it in a boring way? Why doesn’t a girl with a dress wear it or with a trench coat?” If we see a resurgence of pageboy caps on the streets of New York next spring, we’ll know why.
9 September 2023
Svetlana Bevza unveiled her collection at a presentation in Paris yesterday, her first time showing in the French capital. The Ukrainian designer was a fixture of New York Fashion Week before the war upended everything and everyone around her—it’s now been little more than months since she’s back with her family in Kyiv and working out of her brand’s headquarters again. As she explained, the new collection was created and produced under particularly challenging conditions, amid intermittent blackouts and air raid sirens.That’s why this season Bevza pared back her palette to simple black and white and drew on ancient symbols and rituals related to the cycle of life. A black turtleneck dress was cut to the floor with a subtle egg-shaped silhouette; a sleek white minidress came with flattering (and cleverly detachable) wing-like sleeves. Bevza has used pearl iconography as a leitmotif in her work before, and this time shell-inspired detailing appeared along the bustline of a standout floor-length spaghetti-strap black dress.In addition to clothing, Bevza has managed to establish a robust accessories business. Her popular articulated wheat necklaces were designed as a nod to her Ukrainian heritage— grain has long been an emblem of fertility in eastern Europe—and helped sustain her brand when war first broke out as Ukrainians of the diaspora sought ways to show national pride. Bevza’s latest collection of vaguely egg-shaped silver and gold-toned pendants and earrings has a cool minimalism that feels in line with the current mood and is likely to have global appeal.
4 March 2023
For pre-fall, Svitllana Bevza was thinking about building a wardrobe that can last a lifetime. “In this collection, there is a lot of anthology of Bevza, and of me, because I was thinking about what I would wear, how I could combine these things with my wardrobe, how they could last for a lot of seasons, because there’s a lot of overproduction now,” she said during a Zoom call from her native Ukraine. “Elegance is a good investment.”Which means there are many good—no, great—investments to be had in this collection. There were elegant suits: like the cropped jacket and simple handkerchief hem wrap skirt that opened the collection; another, a very on-trend oversized jacket paired with a slim, pleated maxi skirt with a bra-hook closure detail. “We used this for our shoes a couple years ago,” the designer recalled. “I would say this look is very closed, emotionally closed, but with this closure on the front, it’s a bit flirty. It becomes something intimate.” A fuzzy coat made from recycled wool had thick seams that outlined the rounded shape of its sleeves in a way that was both strict and protective, like a cocoon.The standout pieces of the collection are surely the ones that bear an influence of the designer’s heritage; not only are they objectively beautiful, they are also proof of the importance of keeping centuries-old traditions alive. Another skirt suit, this time a cream short jacket with traditional frog button closure paired with a midi skirt with a slight mermaid hem was knitted by hand by a local artisan in Kyiv. “This is a very special piece for us,” she explained. “It was created during the period of blackouts in Kyiv, and the artisan who did the staples had to wake up really early at home so she could sit by the window and work with the sunlight.” The pieces are also zero-waste, the ribbons are cut (“At 45 degrees, then stitched together”) from surplus cotton. There was also a cropped version of the jacket, made in black, and paired with a voluminous cream ball skirt that captured a very fresh ’90s sort of attitude.Throughout our conversation, there were glimpses of what it’s like to be a creative in a country besieged by war: the artisan having to work by daylight because of blackouts, their original shoot date being canceled by raid alarms,” her penchant for the color white. “White means always, a blank sheet of paper, a next day, something new, like you’re creating your life.”
8 February 2023
Svitlana Bevza of the label Bevza is one of the more than 10 million Ukrainians who fled their homes when Russia invaded their country over six months ago, only nine days after Bevza showed her fall 2022 collection in New York. After a month of staying at her home in Kyiv with air sirens ringing, she fled with her children for two days by bus, leaving her husband behind. (Men between 18 and 60 in Ukraine have mandatory military conscription.) Bevza first went to the Czech Republic, and a month and a half later, she settled in a small town in Portugal, where she currently lives. Since then, Bevza has only returned to Ukraine twice, for less than a week at a time. When she first went back to Kyiv this past August, she celebrated with Champagne with her team, and the air sirens went off.The designer’s emotional experience, a combination of alienation and perseverance, culminated in a packed show held in the stark interiors at the empty assay office of 30 Wall Street. At the start of the show, a projector showed a massive yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag as a recording of her voice played, calling for a moment of silence for Ukrainian lives lost during the war.Bevza has always been fiercely proud of her heritage. Her brand, one of the largest in her native Kyiv, is built on subtly weaving craft-driven traditional Ukrainian motifs into her minimalist designs. There were those symbolic moments throughout this season, including the hair, which was done in a Cossack style with a singular sharp bang cutting across the forehead, and traditional Ukrainian singing spliced with modern beats by a Ukrainian DJ. (Bevza’s show was produced by an entirely Ukrainian team; fellow Kyiv designer and LVMH nominee Anton Belinskiy styled it.)Those signature traditional Ukrainian embroideries were evident. The bust of one icy blue slip dress featured a knit of traditional Ukrainian embroidery—an unlikely but ultimately beautiful combination. A keptaryk, a traditional Ukraine vest fastened by knots, was produced in a beautiful thick navy wool and paired with low-slung vegan leather trousers. There was a nod to war too: A bulletproof vest, a longtime motif for the label, was fashioned into a curve-skimming, floor-length dress.Bevza also used the runway as her platform to showcase one of the biggest issues affecting Ukraine right now: wheat. The theme was already baked into the setting: Large wheeled trays with loaves of bread dotted the corners of the space.
Ukraine is considered the breadbasket of Europe, and wheat is embedded within the country’s customs. “When you’re making a proposal to marry somebody, you bring bread with you. When you’re going to somebody’s new home, you should always bring bread,” says Bevza. “Even when you’re saying goodbye to the dead, you used to bring bread.” Currently, there is a crisis: Fields of wheat are being destroyed by Russian missiles, and that’s predicted to have harrowing effects on the world’s wheat supply for months to come.The importance of the grain was translated through the use of wheat spikelets. Even before the war, Bevza produced spikelet necklaces and earrings. This time, that golden spikelet necklace was blackened, symbolizing the burning of the wheat fields. Silk skirts—paired with itty-bitty bandeau tops—boasted an elegant hourglass silhouette thanks to how the fabric was gathered at the sides, a nod to how Ukrainian women centuries ago would gather wheat in the fields.Ukraine can be a tricky place for designers to define themselves; some heavily use Ukrainian traditional motifs in their designs, and others opt to go their own way sans any reference to their roots. Both choices are of course fine, but Bevza possesses the stellar ability to seamlessly translate her homeland—and its crisis—through a contemporary and, in this season’s case, very strong lens.
13 September 2022
Svitlana Bevza has shown in New York for several seasons now, presenting minimalist pieces with trompe l’oeil flare. This time, the Kyiv-based designer used envelopes throughout the collection, alluding to love letters to the earth: they were seen as clutches and as buttons in the shape of a wax seal.The “love letter to the earth” idea went beyond skin deep and was present in how Bevza sourced her fabrics. While sustainability has been a buzzword in the United States and Western Europe for quite some time, it has been slower to take off in Bevza’s home terrain of Ukraine. Bevza is one of the biggest designers involved in the movement there, and began implementing sustainable techniques in her clothing back in 2018 with her eco-friendly puffers and later in 2019 with her knitwear crafted from recycled plastic bottles. Those puffers came back, this time as slick long vests and a tundra-ready maxi skirt, creating a sculpted silhouette. The nubby rib knits, a Bevza best-seller, were crafted out of recycled plastic bottles.Throughout the collection, there were those cheeky pieces that make for good Instagram fodder, like an envelope-shaped clutch or a popcorn maxi dress, but the most impressive looks were the fish scale pieces. Their satisfying texture added some oomph to the otherwise simple looks. A silk slip skirt was made entirely out of the fish scale fabric, shimmering with each step, as did a midnight blue shift dress. The most impressive use of the technique was what first appeared to be a lace-trimmed slip dress: on closer inspection, the lace at the bust was actually the fish scale fabric.Bevza knows her way around a great accessory, like her bags and the square-toe boots she brought back this season, but it pays to looks at the craftsmanship and the tiny details that elevate and bring her pared-back designs to life.
15 February 2022
Fans of Svetlana Bevza’s eponymous label know the staples: a slinky, ab-revealing dress; a white slip; and a muted color palette. This season’s show, revealed today in New York’s Spring Studios, certainly had those elements, but this time Bevza reached out of her comfort zone just a touch. Sure, there’s plenty of slinking to be done in these clothes, but this time there’s the possibility of doing so in more vibrant colors, specifically turquoise, marigold, and baby pink.Bevza was inspired by her own archival staples (“We’re copying ourselves,” she said backstage) as well as the ocean. The latter allowed her to experiment with seashell bra tops—veryThe Little Mermaid—sailor scarves and hats, and wavelike seams adding texture to the body of dresses. The distinctly nautical details were quite obvious; more subtle was the way she used the sea as a jumping-off point to make a statement on sustainability. The boxy necklines of some pieces were meant to resemble plastic shopping bags, for instance, and several of the square patchwork dresses were made from scraps of fabrics in Bevza’s studio. Those frocks were quite appealing: They moved gorgeously when worn and had a subtle complexity that revealed itself the closer you got to the garments.Another enticing detail was the bralike hook-and-eye closure used on a few of the dresses and long cardigans (you can practically hear the street style stars, who favor this kind of barely held-together cardigan, lining up for these pieces). The closures also appeared as a sexy little touch on some of the sandals. On the whole, this season was preppier than usual for Bevza, especially following last fall’s foray into the groovy ’70s. Beach babes can have their prim sailor tops for day and a turquoise shell bra and low-slung pants for night.
9 September 2021
Svetlana Bevza’s brand of sexy ’90s minimalism has established her brand among fashion editors and legions of celebrity fans like Emily Ratajkowski and Gigi Hadid. But this season she veered towards a groovier, ’70s aesthetic. Fringed capes, slightly flared jeans, and headbands worn across the forehead formed what Bevza described as “a bit of rebel spirit.”That’s the obvious takeaway, but look closer and you’ll see the layers of influences Bevza pulled from. “Due to the separation of the pandemic, it’s important for us to show something very Ukranian historically,” she said. Her main inspiration was Olga of Kyiv, who ruled in the 10th century and is known for her *Game of Thrones–*worthy revenge on the people who killed her husband. The knit balaclavas, one of which opened the show, were inspired by Olga, but for the 21st century they were paired with matching blazers and knee-high leather boots. Bevza also incorporated the image of the spikelet, a symbol of good harvest and an optimistic year. Last season the label introduced spikelet earrings; this time, subtle, grain-like shapes appeared in the boots, caped dresses, denim skirts, and in the chunky fringe adorning some of the knits.With mustard and slate blue livening up the typical Bevza color palette, the sophisticated and soft silhouettes spoke to life at home. As Bevza said, “It will last for a while that people are at home with no parties, but we have to feel and see ourselves beautiful in the mirror.”
17 February 2021
Svitlana Bevza’s designs may be minimal, but there’s deep meaning and history behind their simplicity. In her previous collections, she’s often referenced her Ukrainian heritage, specifically the country’s powerful women. This season, she created a narrative around her study of Trypillia, an ancient pagan civilization that cherished women. Harvest symbols also played a role in pieces like a delicately braided knit top and a silk dress with pleating at the bodice mimicking a “tree of life.”Paying homage to the Trypillia women, Bevza designed sharply tailored, corseted dresses, and a tunic with visible stitching outlining the female figure. Those pieces were soft and sensual but still strong, especially a hand-knit ivory coat. The earthily hued, subtly textured garments were accessorized by ceramic jewelry modeled on the statues of the Trypillia people.In the absence of a show, the designer created a film that further emphasized her aesthetic and passion for sharing her Ukrainian history. Bevza’s one to keep watching; she has a lot to say, despite how quiet her clothes may seem.
15 September 2020
On a day when everyone was talking about who would wear what to theOscars, Svitlana Bevza brought us all back down to earth for a few minutes. Her namesake label felt like a palette cleanser up against the drama and OTT fashion action of Hollywood’s biggest night, and that’s what has always made it so appealing. Bevza isn’t a couturier and she isn’t fixated on who will sit in her front row. On this runway there were noCheergirls, no giant crinoline gowns, no head-to-toe crystals, and no live performances. What Bevza showed was more straightforward than that: It was a wearable, beautifully made collection of timeless clothes. Minimalism is the name of the game for Bevza, but looking forward to fall she embraced more texture and more depth.The Ukranian designer may be known for dressingEmily RatajkowskiandBella Hadidin slinky silk black and white slip dresses, but there are more layers to that sexed-up aesthetic. Bevza makes a brilliant coat, like the mink fur printed puffer blazer and ultra-pale pink sweater coat with giant pockets stitched at the front that she showed today. Her recycled knits spoke to the tactile quality of this collection too, as did the romantic ruched taffeta dress worn over cropped pants. All of the models wore Bevza’s newest shoe: a square-toe tabi sandal that is sure to become her next sellout item. Bevza is filling the void as far as chic, minimal American sportswear is concerned and if she can stay on track, and start to weave in more sustainable clothing as well, she’ll continue to make a soft, subtle impact on fashion as a whole.
9 February 2020
Much like the Khaite show this morning, Bevza drew a much bigger crowd than last season. There were more buyers and editors, and many, many influencers who have clearly fallen hard for Svitlana Bevza’s austere brand of updated ’90s minimalism. Her Kiev-based label has been in business for 13 years, but in 2019, Bevza got a major celebrity endorsement: In May,Game of Thronesstar Sophie Turner wore one of the designer’s white jumpsuits to wed Joe Jonas at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. On top of that, the clothes have wound up on Emily Ratajkowski and Gigi Hadid, among other models and glitterati types. But there is more to Bevza than her newly found mass appeal. Her designs are striking and deliberate, and they are meant to be “investment pieces, worn over and over again,” a shy Bevza said post-show. She considers the simplicity of her designs to be vital in helping women be more sustainable by buying things they’ll keep and not throw away once a fad dies or a trend goes dark. This season, those pieces included a black silk skirt, clean white shirting, and a range of modest jackets and coats with an angular single collar that pointed upward to the face.Bevza also explained the meaning behind her streamlined, monochromatic black, white, and tan collection. In Ukraine, wheat fields symbolize womanhood and the designer represented this by adding subtle wheat braid tassels to a few of the garments. She also added them to mini pouches that tied around the waist and were placed purposefully in front of the models’ crotches. The lovely finale dress, another slip, was decorated with the same braiding technique down the entire front. The dresses with paneling that looked like bodysuits unhooked at the bottom, perhaps nodding to this idea of liberated womanhood too, as did the bra tops and bra cutouts on two of the dresses. Though her collections do sometimes recall her predecessors who made naked dresses take off back in the ’90s, Bevza showcased today, more than ever, that she has her own voice and distinct point-of-view. It was a powerful show, made even more powerful when you looked around the show space and saw that everyone was eating it all up.
7 September 2019
Fashion week in New York has become a bit like the Wild West. Technically, there’s still a centralized building (remember when there were tents?), but mostly designers show wherever they please—downtown, uptown, Brooklyn. There’s no longer a prescribed formula, either, though presentations are preferred among up-and-comers who don’t yet have the cash to put on a show, and they tend to be experimental, provocative even. Svitlana Bevza’s presentation qualified. Once guests sat themselves, some with glasses of Champagne in hand, the lights dimmed, the first model stepped out, and then came a voice from beyond. The show was narrated by director and stylist Pam Nasr, who stood on a small corner stage with a microphone in her hand.Models walked slowly, one by one, and Nasr spoke in a dramatic, borderline sarcastic tone: “Here, Alla wears an outfit that is the refined essence of Bevza. This fabulous white tailored coat comes with a matching pair of square-toe mules. Chicandsophisticated.” Other times she declared, “See that cinch!” or “Do a beautiful spin for us, Masha!” It was cheeky and clever, like being time-warped back into some long-lost age of runway shows. Nasr’s narration, funny as it was, also helped to emphasize Bevza’s skills as a designer.The minimal collection was in part inspired by her hometown of Kiev, as seen in a floral print of a photo the designer took at its National Botanic Garden. Bevza brought back her puffer coats and ’90s-ish white dresses, styled this time around with leg warmers that referenced a gymnastics show the designer used to watch on a Ukrainian morning TV as a kid. The clothes and the throwback format felt refreshing on the last day of fashion week.
14 February 2019
Svitlana Bevza gave birth to a daughter at the end of April, then not long after, to her Spring 2019 collection. “With a newborn child, I don’t know how I did that!” she said backstage. An “intermezzo,” she called it, after the short musical interlude between acts. In short, the Ukrainian designer chose to create uncomplicated vacation clothes, as she sorely needed a reprieve. (Then again, what working woman doesn’t?) “Next time, my strong woman will be back,” Bevza said, “but right now, she needed some rest.”Yet by stripping things back, the woman seen today looked stronger than ever. The ’90s are a perennial reference for Bevza, as she draws inspiration from memories of her own mother’s wardrobe of smart structured jackets and slim pants. Here, she cleaved tightly to the decade’s minimalism—the seductive school of Tom Ford’s early Gucci, which is having a renaissance now. “I wanted to remind people about femininity and sexuality without hype,” said Bevza. “We’re talking about elegant women.”Think: a plunging white rib knit dress slit up past both hips. On the runway, it worked as a dress with sheer bike shorts, but Bevza imagines it as an easy tunic with jeans, as well. A little black stretch and silk number clung sinfully to the body, but was offset by a demure long cardigan slung like a cape around the neck. Meanwhile, a cap-sleeve dress hand-knit with silk ribbon managed to look cozy and sexy at once. That’s no mean feat.After spending eight blissful days in Greece, Bevza threw several seaside tokens in the mix. There were black clamshell bags and the twin-shell top of a slinky strapless dress, plus mussel shells strung on simple black cords around models’ necks. The pattern of one khaki circle skirt came from a beach umbrella, while a fluttery white statement frock was pulled from a parasail wing. Bevza should not hesitate to keep things simple next season—nor to take more time off, whenever she needs it. There’s great strength in that.
11 September 2018
“Faux Reality” was the title of Svetlana Bevza’s Fall 2018 show—her second ever in New York, after years in her hometown of Kiev—and it manifested as a clever take on trompe l’oeil. Specifically, the designer sent out a series of puffy nylon coats printed with animal skins and pieced together in strips to create the illusion of fur. “Puffers are super popular, but they look really sporty,” she said. “We wanted to show it in our style as elegant stuffed coats.” They were in fact charming versions of various “cult coats,” named for the women who wore them: the Gwyneth, pulled from Margot Tenenbaum’s iconic fox; the Sarah as a silver wolf pelt fromSex and the City; and, cheekily, the Anna, named for a spotted leopard coat once worn byVogue’s Editor-in-Chief. The ultra-faux fur items, which included a few handheld stoles, were stuffed not with goose down, but eco-down to keep them fully animal-free.Other optical illusions included tiny were-they-weren’t-they neckties affixed to tops at the breastbone or navel and a cool satin-nylon coat with uneven quilting that did, at a glance, resemble crocodile skin (the coats were the real winners here). For a cursory nod to trends, Bevza had fanny packs wrapped around models’ waists by ribbons, matched perfectly to the clothes so they blended in neatly. But on the whole, she wisely stuck to the sort of minimal prettiness that the downtown gallery girl will love: the opening passage of white boiled wool tops and high-cut body suits, and the closing section of diaphanous silk dresses with ruching at the bust. They came in sweet candy colors like sugar pink, pale blue, and a rich green, a number that was inspired by Shrek’s Princess Fiona, of all things. Sometimes, it just works.
13 February 2018
Riffs on traditional and national costume, specifically the reemergence of thevyshyvankadress, was a popular trend in the past few seasons in Ukraine. At one point, pieces such as thevyshyvankawere ubiquitous on runways and on the street, but they’ve since faded from both. In fact, there were almost no ethnic motifs on the runway this season, except in clothes from the label Bezva by Svetlana Bevza. The designer held her presentation in the Ivan Honchar Museum, having became inspired by its archive of antique Ukrainian clothing. There, she discovered thekhustka, a traditional head covering that was popular in 19th-century Ukraine and was considered a measure of wealth.Adding an unexpected and refreshing post-Soviet edge to the historical piece, Bevza combined the heavily patterned shawls with silhouettes that were trendy in ’90s Ukraine. The juxtaposition was great: A granny dress received a jolt of vibrant color thanks to the different combinations ofkhustkapatterns. Bevza is also one of the few labels here that produces quality accessories. Shiny black bags were made to look like glossy, plastic grocery packets that were once considered stylish and were saved by women. It’s nice to see a designer breathe new life into trends once considered passé while finding updated ways to pay homage to her culture.
27 February 2017
Founder: Svetlana BevzaYear established: 2006Known for: Bevza is one of the leading labels in Ukraine and sold internationally.Spring 2017 inspiration: Celebrating the label’s 10-year anniversary, Bevza dipped into the archives. Standouts included a silk hoodie and an off-the-shoulder minidress with puffed shoulders.
10 November 2016
Founder: Svetlana BevzaYear established: 2006Known for: Slinky takes on suit dressing, abstract prints, pattern-pumped sweaters, and clingy knit dressesFall 2016 inspiration: Post-Soviet society and the battle against past traditions, introducing a new idea of femininity mixed with a masculine aestheticWorn by: Julie Pelipas, Nadiia Shapoval
21 March 2016