The Harvest Fest: Litkovska Celebrates its 15th Anniversary in Paris

Lilia Litkovska, the rock star of the Ukrainian fashion industry behind her eponymous label, celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of her brand, presenting the Spring-Summer 2025 collection as part of the official schedule of Paris Fashion Week.

The Zhnyva collection – “harvest” in Ukrainian – symbolises the gathering of the brand’s achievements over the past 15 years. This collection reflects the concept of reaping what has been sown: a cycle of creation, reflection, and renewal, celebrating the brand’s history and its ongoing evolution.

The main entrance of the L’Éclaireur Sévigné concept store was decorated with baskets of apples, pies, flowers and authentic Ukrainian symbols, which personified a hospitable and beautiful country. The concept draws inspiration from dialogue as an ultimate way of reaping and sowing ideas and meanings. Litkovska tapped into this metaphor in March this year, beginning in Paris, where guests at the brand’s presentation wrote wishes for peace and victory on white ribbons. These “harvested” messages were later brought to Kyiv, where Ukrainians responded with letters of gratitude and postcards. The harvest of Ukrainian letters returned to Paris, completing the circle and emphasising the power of shared voices.

The craftsmanship roots of Lilia Litkovska, who comes from four generations of tailors, are ever visible in the Spring-Summer 2025 collection with a myriad of deconstructed menswear staples put on women’s shoulders – as well as the intricate work with textures, layering, and symbolic embellishments.  Sewing metaphors into masterful objects at the intersection of art and fashion, Litkovska reimagines ancestral gratitude to Mother Nature and the gifts of the land we all inhabit.

The Spring-Summer 2025 collection offers mesh tops and trimmed blouses resembling corn tassels, asymmetric dresses, and an all-black outfit made of glossy faux leather – as if sprinkled with autumn raindrops.

A special place in the collection is allocated to the versatile Zip Bag - represented worldwide from New York to Tokyo, this accessory becomes a real partner-in-crime for experiments in style and function, providing multiple ways of wearing it.

At the heart of the collection is a charity project: a collaboration with renowned British image maker and SHOWstudio Director, Nick Knight. Titled “Flowers Know Better”, this capsule explores the strength and wisdom of nature, with flowers representing endurance amidst fragility. Exclusively for this project, Nick Knight has developed floral images that have been further deconstructed, embroidered, and applied on various fabrics, playing with the form and lines of the clothes. Each piece is meticulously crafted, blending artisanal techniques with contemporary silhouettes.

This capsule collection merges the vibrant spirit of Ukraine with Knight’s artistic vision. Inspired by Knight’s iconic floral photography, the capsule portrays flowers as symbols of endurance, balancing fragility and strength. The collaboration becomes a poetic dialogue between Lilia Litkovska’s designs and Knight’s visionary imagery.

“The goal of our collaboration is to support children of Ukraine affected by this terrible war and to warm the souls of people around the world by bringing these flowers closer to their hearts,” shares Lilia Litkovska.

The collaboration includes a jacket, suit trousers, an open-back vest, voluminous shirts, and various denim pieces, including skirts and jackets. A T-shirt inscribed with the slogan "Flowers Know Better" echoes the collection’s message of nature’s wisdom and resilience.

“I abhor violence and brutality of all kinds wherever and however it happens. If within this collaboration my work can bring any relief from, or shine a light on the cruel and inhuman suffering that this dreadful war is causing, then I will be delighted,” Nick Knight adds.

The Litkovska x Nick Knight collaboration was initiated by Be an Angel e.V., led by Holger Homann. Be an Angel e.V. is an international humanitarian organization, also registered in Ukraine, that has been providing vital relief and evacuation efforts in Ukraine since March 2022.

Courtesy: Litkovska

Text: Jesse Brouns