Ukraine’s Olena Zelenska’s relationship with fashion is a complicated one. In 2022, her appearance as a digital cover star for Vogue sparked much debate on social media, while the fact she has a stylist on her staff, Natalia Kamenska, has also raised eyebrows at a time when her countrymen may feel they have more pressing issues to worry about.
Yet no one has done more to showcase the talent of Ukraine’s burgeoning fashion industry than Zelenska – a task she began long before Putin’s tanks crossed the border.
Using fashion to communicate protest, she not only wears local designers such as The Coat, Gunia and AMG, but also specific pieces that nod to Ukraine’s distinct history separate to Russia. Examples include the vyshyvanka, a kind of traditional embroidered shirt which is symbolic of Ukraine, which she wore for National Vyshyvanka Day in 2022.
She often also wears Ukraine’s national colours, blue and yellow – a trick that any political spouse, on any budget, knows can provide a winning sartorial formula in the eyes of the public.