Odessa Fashion Day Season 33 ‘UNDEFINED’ Explores Identity, Beauty and Freedom in Odesa

Odessa Fashion Day will present its 33rd season in Odesa from 6 to 8 November 2026, bringing Ukrainian designers, educational events and collection presentations together under the concept UNDEFINED. This season, the platform moves beyond conventional ideas of beauty to examine identity, bodily autonomy and freedom of self-expression. At the centre of its official campaign is actor and stage-speech teacher Oleksandr Piven, whose personal experience of injury and changing perceptions of his own body gives the theme a meaning that extends far beyond the runway.

The three-day programme will bring together independent designers, fashion education and creative professionals across several locations in Odesa. The main runway presentations will take place at Sady Peremohy Luxury Gallery, with additional lectures and a fashion presentation completing the season.

UNDEFINED: Beauty Beyond Expectations

Some people cannot be described through a single identity. Some forms of beauty exist outside conventional expectations of age, gender, appearance or physical perfection.

These questions form the basis of UNDEFINED, the creative concept behind Odessa Fashion Day’s 33rd season.

The theme considers the freedom to define oneself without accepting the labels imposed by society, circumstances or established aesthetic standards.

For Odesa, this conversation has a particular cultural context. The southern Ukrainian city has developed through centuries of interaction between different communities, traditions and individual histories. Its maritime heritage and cultural diversity have contributed to an identity that cannot easily be reduced to one characteristic.

Russia’s continuing full-scale invasion of Ukraine adds another dimension to the conversation.

War affects people’s lives, bodies, relationships and expectations of the future. Yet the circumstances in which someone lives should not become the only way their identity is understood.

For Odessa Fashion Day, UNDEFINED is therefore not a statement about ignoring reality. It is an invitation to consider how individuality, vulnerability and self-expression remain part of human experience even when external circumstances impose profound limitations.

Within this framework, fashion becomes a medium for discussing personal identity rather than simply establishing a particular standard of appearance.

Oleksandr Piven: The Personal Story Behind the Campaign

The official campaign for Season 33 features Oleksandr Piven, an actor and stage-speech teacher whose professional work has centred on helping people develop their voices and confidence in self-expression.

After being injured in a missile strike, Piven experienced a difficult period in his relationship with his appearance and sense of self.

According to the project’s press release, participating in the campaign became part of a personal process of reconnecting with his body and reconsidering his own understanding of beauty.

The campaign approaches that experience through fashion imagery rather than attempting to illustrate trauma literally.

A look by Valer.experience introduces androgynous references, contrasting textures and expressive forms. The visual concept uses light, shadow and bodily movement to explore relationships between openness and protection, vulnerability and confidence.

The result challenges a familiar assumption within fashion imagery: that beauty must be associated with physical perfection or an easily recognisable ideal.

Piven’s participation gives the campaign a more personal foundation. The central subject is not an abstract interpretation of unconventional beauty, but an individual reconsidering how he sees himself.

Crucially, his experience is not presented as a universal narrative of recovery. It remains his own story, connected to the wider season through questions of self-acceptance and the right to determine one’s identity.

Sixteen Years of Supporting Ukrainian Fashion

Founded in Odesa in 2010, Odessa Fashion Day has developed across 33 seasons as a platform connecting independent designers, emerging talent, educational institutions and creative professionals.

Its work has taken place during significant changes within Ukrainian society and the country’s fashion industry.

Throughout that period, the platform has provided opportunities for designers to present collections, establish professional contacts and engage with audiences beyond their immediate creative networks.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the practical circumstances surrounding cultural events have become considerably more difficult.

Odessa Fashion Day has nevertheless continued to organise presentations and educational activities, maintaining professional connections between designers, media organisations and the wider fashion community.

The significance of that continuity should not be separated from the realities of working during wartime.

The platform’s ongoing activity reflects a commitment to supporting creative practice and professional development in Ukraine, while its seasonal concepts provide opportunities to discuss cultural identity through fashion.

For Season 33, that conversation turns towards the individual: the right to remain more than a definition imposed by external circumstances.

Odessa Fashion Day Season 33: Three Days of Fashion and Education

The programme will run from 6 to 8 November 2026, combining designer runway shows with educational discussions and collection presentations.

6 November — Building a Fashion Brand

The opening day will feature an educational session led by Olena Kostenko, titled Building a Fashion Brand.

Beginning at 16:00, the lecture will examine brand development, the creation of a distinctive identity and the professional challenges involved in establishing a fashion label.

The event will take place at a confidential location and is accessible by invitation only.

7 November — Ukrainian Designer Runway Shows

The central runway programme will take place at Sady Peremohy Luxury Gallery in Odesa, beginning at 14:30.

Four presentation blocks will bring together Ukrainian designers, independent labels and fashion education projects.

The running order is:

• 14:30 — MAGNAT, PRO. FASHION SCHOOL, KEKA
• 15:30 — simetri.k, SOFI RICH
• 16:30 — R.PRYIMAK | KNUTD, Ostroverkhova Tatiana
• 17:30 — ALMATOVA, Nimble Scissors

The programme provides a shared platform for designers working at different stages of their professional development.

Rather than defining the season through one aesthetic, Odessa Fashion Day brings together independent creative approaches, allowing individual collections to contribute to the wider discussion surrounding contemporary Ukrainian fashion.

8 November — Fashion Production and Collection Presentation

The final day will begin at 12:00 with Oksana Semenenko’s lecture, Fashion Production: From Idea to Execution.

The session will examine the stages involved in developing a fashion project, from its initial concept to the organisation of a professional presentation.

The lecture will take place at a confidential location and is invitation-only.

At 15:00, Maison Sophi G & ZARINA will present their fashion project at MarAmax, located at 9 Lanzheronivska Street in Odesa.

The combination of runway presentations and educational activities reflects the platform’s wider purpose: creating opportunities not only to show finished collections, but also to discuss the processes involved in developing a fashion brand.

Fashion Education and International Connections

Professional education remains an important part of the season’s structure.

The Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design (KNUTD) joins as Educational Partner, while the runway programme includes a presentation by R.PRYIMAK | KNUTD.

The inclusion of educational institutions alongside independent designers provides opportunities for emerging practitioners to participate in a professional fashion environment.

International collaboration also remains part of the project’s work.

London Fashion Day (LFD) serves as International Partner, continuing the connection between Ukrainian designers and a wider international creative community.

These relationships help position Odessa Fashion Day within a broader professional network while maintaining its focus on developing fashion in Ukraine.

Partners Supporting the 33rd Season

Odessa Fashion Day Season 33 is supported by organisations working across fashion education, beauty, production, media and the creative industries.

The season’s venues include Sady Peremohy Luxury Gallery and MarAmax.

The Educational Partner is Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design (KNUTD).

Image Partners include Make Me Up Studio and School, MARAMAX GROUP, Ultimate Trend Store, ARTpodium Model Agency and TOTALITE Model Agency.

The International Partner is London Fashion Day.

Media Partners include FASHION, Best People Club, Merlaine Magazine, FOSTYLEN, City Sites, 048.UA, FABIOS Magazine, ЧАС ПЕРШИХ, ABSURDU.NET, BUT.IN.UA, Culture Trend, TrueUA.Info, EPOQUE Magazine, GLORY Magazine, GOSSIP Magazine, Lucky Ukraine, Super Lady Magazine, TOUCH Magazine, Studio of My Dreams, Cool’baba, Collaboration Magazine, Фаворит, Одеса Медіа, GLAM Week Magazine, SEWING BUSINESS AND FASHION and PROMINENT Magazine.

Together, these partnerships contribute to the professional infrastructure supporting the season, connecting designers with education, creative production and media visibility.

Beyond Definition: Fashion and the Right to Individuality

The 33rd season of Odessa Fashion Day arrives at a moment when Ukrainian cultural life continues to be shaped by the consequences of war.

Yet UNDEFINED deliberately resists allowing those circumstances to become the only subject through which Ukrainian fashion is understood.

The participating designers are creating contemporary collections, developing professional practices and exploring their own approaches to clothing. Their work belongs to the wider cultural conversation surrounding fashion, not only to the circumstances in which it is produced.

The official campaign extends that idea to the individual.

Through Oleksandr Piven’s story, the season considers how beauty and identity can remain open to personal interpretation, even when experiences alter the relationship between a person and their body.

For Odessa Fashion Day, the central message is that a person, a city or a creative future cannot be understood solely through what has happened to them.

UNDEFINED does not attempt to eliminate difference or replace one aesthetic standard with another. Instead, it makes room for identities and forms of expression that resist simple classification.

BEYOND DEFINITION. BEYOND CIRCUMSTANCE. STILL BECOMING.

Odessa Fashion Day Season 33 will take place in Odesa from 6 to 8 November 2026.

The full programme is available on the official schedule, with guest registration open for the runway shows and collection presentation. Educational lectures on 6 and 8 November are invitation-only. The programme is subject to change.

For further information, visit Odessa Fashion Day or contact [email protected].