I have been interested in sustainable fashion since 2013, when Emma Watson brought the topic to attention while promoting her collaboration with fair trade fashion pioneer People Tree, which uses environmentally-friendly materials and focuses on taking care of the planet and its inhabitants.
Today I am working with LOVE, a sustainable fashion brand that is emerging on the international scene, and its CEO and founder Ksenia Karpenko has already established herself as one of the most talented and creative Ukrainian designers.
After graduating from London College of Fashion, Ksenia founded LOVE about seven years ago and the brand became very successful in Ukraine, with the opening of her boutique in Kyiv and other pop-up stores. She has been working with the same team of creators from the start, giving importance to the matter of surrounding yourself with people you can trust, which is essential for creating a long-term business collaboration.
The Ukrainian fashion designer has now relocated to Spain due to the war in Ukraine; she is now working on the expansion of her brand both in Spain and on the European markets, including Italy.
Talking about the inspiration behind LOVE, Ksenia stated: “We do not choose our bodies. This is a gift given to us when we were born. We are to cherish and style it according to its shape and our lifestyle. And after all, when we LOVE the way we look, we are powerful.”
The brand combines contemporary fashion with Ukrainian cultural heritage, in order to merge two unique worlds in one brand. This highlights the aspect of cultural value and the uniqueness of a brand in this era of globalization.
Regarding sustainability, LOVE tries to use ethically-sourced fabrics and textiles of natural origin (like organic cotton and bamboo silk) whenever possible. The majority of the collection is handmade in Ukraine and her employees are well-paid and treated ethically. The designer’s main focus is creating clothing made to last, with a preference for quality and sustainable fabrics. The brand is very attentive to educating women on how to dress according to their lifestyle and body shape; Ksenia thinks it’s important to talk to her clients and getting their feedback in order to improve the collections. “As a brand, we also give style tips to our clients on how to style themselves based on their body shapes and color complexions.”
“I think that if women have in their wardrobe only clothes that fit their body type, that enhance their unique beauty, that don’t go out of style and make women feel elegant and powerful, this also shows on the outside and helps women feel confident and comfortable in their own skin. […] I deeply believe in this premise: fashion should be at the service of women and not women at the service of fashion.” These kinds of choices also allow us to help the environment and take care of our planet as well.
If we want to be sustainable, we should make good choices when buying our clothes, investing in quality pieces and staying away from the fast-fashion mentality, which finds its roots in excessive consumerism, with people buying too many clothes and throwing them away after only a few weeks or months. Fast fashion has an extremely detrimental impact on the environment; according to Earth.org, “of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills. This means that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites every second. If the trend continues, the number of fast fashion waste is expected to soar up to 134 million tonnes a year by the end of the decade.” I highly suggest you watch the video essay “How We Really Stop Fast Fashion” on Our Changing Climate channel, which explains in details the planetary cost of fast fashion and possible solutions to the issue. “A future not reliant on worker exploitation, pollution or waste is one in which the workers laboring in textile factories communally decide what gets made. A factory where the designers are the workers and the workers are the designers.”
This idea is pretty close to the core of Ksenia Karpenko’s business which validates not only the built of working relationships that stand the test of time, but also the fact that people don’t need to renew their wardrobe every season with each new trend that comes out. We can instead move towards more ethical and environmentally-friendly wardrobe choices.
LOVE by Ksenia Karpenko is currently presenting its Spring/Summer 2023 collection and working on the designs for Fall/Winter 2023/24. To book appointments to see the collection or make online orders, you may contact us via email: finoconsulting19@gmail.com
Additional notes:
Thank you to Ksenia Karpenko for our collaboration and for being a kind and talented person committed to working hard and giving voice to her vision.
Thank you to Our Climate Change on Youtube and to Earth.org for always providing insightful information on climate change and issues like fast fashion and carbon dioxide emissions. These educational tools are essential in analyzing how we humans connect with the natural world and in embracing all possible solutions to the climate and environmental crisis.
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