Kiev Fashion Days
Anna October has been enjoying a steady stream of success the past few years. In addition to being an LVMH Prize finalist in 2015, she's stocked internationally at Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong, and online at Moda Operandi, Shopbop, and MatchesFashion. Her frilly, often off-the-shoulder dresses have a commercial appeal that separates her from other Ukrainian designers, though they had become somewhat predictable.
Lately October has been pushing outside her comfort zone, with her Fall 2017 collection a turning point. For the past few months, she's been rediscovering her roots as an art history major and injecting art into her designs. The day before she showed the collection, she collaborated with an old college friend who created an abstract structure, which October used in her lookbook. It served as a cool backdrop to the soft cotton and silk color-blocked dresses with puffed sleeves that dominated the collection. A standout here was the strapless striped dress with a Mohawk ruffle running down the arm. It's essentially an October-style dress, but a whole lot bolder.
