As his native Kyiv was being bombed by the Russians in the early days of the war, Oleksandr Trotsyuk did as many others did: he ducked out for food in between air-raid sirens, checked on his loved ones, and tried to maintain contact with the outside world in a situation that felt both unreal and all too real. There was little time to work on Object X, the line of tech wear he was designing, whose founder had left to fight on the front lines. But despite the horror of being in a war zone, and as frivolous as it seemed, fashion was still on his mind.
Trotsyuk fell in love with fashion as a teenager in the late 90s, as post-Soviet Ukraine was opening up to Western cultural influence and dressing up came to signify upward mobility and a newfound sense of optimism. Like many obsessives who have limited access to fashion, Trotsyuk resorted to the means he had at his disposal. Back then that meant trawling a nascent market for donated clothing that came from Western Europe, an industry that has only expanded through the years and continues to thrive today despite the war.
