The Ukrainian Designer Whose Jewelry Has Become a Symbol of Resistance
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When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of this year, Svitlana Bevza had just returned to Kyiv from showing her eponymous collection at New York Fashion Week. And so began a surreal odyssey for the Ukrainian designer—known for her minimalist tailoring and spikelet jewelry carried by US retailers including Moda Operandi, McMullen, and the Frankie Shop—which has seen her family become refugees first in the Czech Republic and then Portugal. Seven months later, Bevza is back in New York for her Spring 2023 runway show. Bazaar.com spoke with her about her experience of designing during a war, far from home.
Where have you been living and working since the invasion?
Svitlana Bevza: The week after it started, we went to Czech Republic. I stayed there with my kids a month and a half in a small village, and then we went to Braga, Portugal. I wasn’t sure if we could go on and produce Bevza in Ukraine, everything was blocked. We didn’t even have the access to our warehouse and we were afraid to go to work. I found a Portuguese agent who helped me to find some proper factories.
Did your team join you in Portugal?
SB: It’s hard for me to explain, but the main team didn’t want to leave the country. I’ve been proposing to the Ukrainian factories we work with that there are spaces in Portugal, they need well qualified workers so there are job opportunities. They could be afraid because they don't know a foreign language, et cetera, and they’ve never been. A lot of people in the Ukrainian fashion industry—patternmakers, technical workers—they didn’t travel much outside of Ukraine before the war. I decided with my team to reopen our atelier and warehouses in Kyiv, because it’s more or less the safest place now in Ukraine.
Are you able to ship orders from Ukraine now?
SB: DHL in Ukraine reopened two months ago and they deliver in a hybrid way that’s not quite as fast as it was before so we allow extra time. They send packages to their warehouse in Poland, by trucks, by cars. And then after that, fast with the planes.
When the invasion began, it was just at the moment that we were meant to be shipping our Spring 2022 wholesales orders. Our sales showroom, Rainbowwave, contacted buyers. They didn’t cancel the orders. They told us we will wait and this was a huge support for us. And for the Fall 2022 orders, they also didn’t cancel, and somehow we managed to deliver everything on time.
Have you been able to go back to Kyiv at all?
SB: I won’t stay in Ukraine until the war is over because of my kids. I’ve been twice in Ukraine, once just to meet with my husband, Volodymyr, who is serving in the Territorial Defence in the east of Ukraine now, and the second time to meet with my husband and to shoot the lookbook. I can go, but kids not.
It’s like, I come to Kyiv, and everything seems the same. I meet my team in the office and we’re happy to see each other, we’re doing some small party with like one bottle of champagne. And then I go to the balcony and, again, this air raid alarm. I don’t know how to say it—it’s super depressing. Before the war, we lived our lives. Everything was fine. I didn’t plan to immigrate somewhere.
How are your kids adjusting to their new school in Portugal?
SB: I placed them in a British school because my son, Marc, used to go to British school in Kyiv. My daughter Ann is four, so she’s just starting school here. For her, it’s easy, something new. She speaks some Portuguese phrases already, and I have no idea what she’s talking about! Marc is eight and he’s doing basically the same curriculum as in Kyiv. He told me, ‘This is all unfair. I miss my friends. I want to go home and I miss my daddy.’ But he understands that he cannot back into Ukraine now.
And how is working remotely going for you?
SB: There are five or six people in the atelier in Kyiv when I did the Spring 2023 collection. I sent the sketches there, then we did online fittings and I told them, you have to do it higher or lower, or even the choice of fabrics. I’m lucky that I have these guys. They’re literally my superheroes because I’ve been gathering my team together for years and they know what I want very well. It was complicated, but they managed.
What is your inspiration for the Spring 2023 collection?
SB: It’s obvious that the theme is around Ukraine. The key motif is the wheat spikelet, which has been a Bevza signature for some time. We make these spikelet necklaces in gold-plated brass and silver. It is a main symbol of Ukrainian fertile land because Ukraine is one of the largest world producers of wheat. I lived in the suburbs of Kyiv, and every day I drove through the fields of wheat on the way to work. It’s everywhere. And now a lot of it is burnt, a lot of it is stolen, and it can cause a big crisis in a lot of countries. These spikelets are a beautiful thing aesthetically, and I’m referring to our land as something fertile and something that gives life. As a woman, she gives life. So for me, the spikelet is what we’re fighting for.
What do you hope to share about the culture of Ukraine?
SB: Our culture is very rich and unique and differs a lot from Russian culture and it was very muted by the Soviet Union. My grandfather, he couldn’t wear this embroidered Ukrainian traditional shirt, which is called vyshyvanka, because in Ukraine in the fifties or sixties he could be put in jail for wearing something Ukrainian or for speaking Ukrainian. That was insane. And that is why maybe the spirit now of Ukrainians is to fight till the end, because we are so tired of it.
What motivates you to keep your collection going in these difficult times?
SB: We thought about closing the label for some period of time, but nobody on my team wanted to because they also needed jobs and money. Before the war, my husband was Ukraine’s Minister for Transport and he chose to join the army. Basically I’m the person now for the first time in my life who feeds the family.
Our main clients used to be international, but when the war started, it created a huge demand from Ukrainians to buy these spikelet jewelry pieces. We’re shipping to different regions of Ukraine, and to many Ukrainian women abroad who have left the country. The factory where we used to produce jewelry was shelled by Russians in March. The computers with the patterns of the spikelets and everything was ruined. So the team, the jewelry makers, had to start everything from zero in another place.
Sometimes I’m talking about everything like I’m seeing some movie. This is actually surreal. I’m a strong girl, usually make decisions fast, but these first months was like, I couldn’t understand anything and my mind was blocked. But yeah, we go on.
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