Exhausted but relieved. On June 7, the day before our meeting, Julie Pelipas had just won the Karl Lagerfeld prize at the LVMH Prize ceremony, which rewards emerging fashion designers. It seemed like a sign of encouragement for the Ukrainian designer, whose life was shattered by the Russian invasion. What’s the point of staying the course, continuing when everything is collapsing around you? “Winning this award was essential. This is the signal that the fashion world recognizes our work. Without this legitimization, the risk is to remain on the margins. »
In 2019, Julie Pelipas launched Bettter (with 3 t), a start-up which recycles second-hand clothes which she reworks and transforms into “tailored” pieces. In kyiv, this former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine, whose charisma and appearance mean she is regularly photographed around fashion shows, owns a factory, a vast production and research and development site located in an industrial complex. When war breaks out, there is astonishment. As a security measure, she relocated part of her team to London, the other to Portugal. “In kyiv, I lived in a house with a garden, near the river. A dream place. When Russia invaded my country, I had just had the best year of my life. »
His first instinct is to support his peers facing the same chaos. She launched a digital platform (now called “GIVEN NAME. Community”) to represent and promote Ukrainian fashion professionals. “I asked myself: ‘How can my voice be used? Fashion is where I have the most influence, so I decided to use my connections to support creatives in my country who have been caught off guard. » However, she does not give up on Better, and continues to carry out her project at arm’s length, with the support of her team.
In September 2022, his employees, unhappy, asked him to return to settle in Ukraine. But, soon enough, they have to retreat a second time. “Away from home, they were depressed, like me. We then decided to move back to kyiv. For two months we were able to work almost normally, but the bombings started again and a fire broke out right next to our production site. I couldn’t sleep anymore, paralyzed at the idea that something happened to one of us. I explained to them that I would not hold out mentally. Brands continue to produce in Ukraine, it’s extremely courageous, but I can’t manage to work out of fear in my stomach. » The voice is calm but the emotion is on the surface.
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