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Almost a week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading luxury brands including Burberry, Kering-owned Gucci and Balenciaga, and Marni and Diesel-owner OTB Group are breaking their silence, sending statements of support and announcing fundraising.
The spotlight has been on international luxury brands since Russia's invasion of Ukraine started in the middle of Milan Fashion Week on Thursday. Ukrainian fashion designers, buyers and department store Tsum Kyiv have called for the fashion industry to stop trading with Russia and for greater sanctions but outside of some smaller brands, the industry has been largely silent until now. Hungarian brand Nanushka stopped selling to Russia and smaller brands including Elleme have called for peace and started to raise funds, while the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode called for solemnity during Paris Fashion Week which is pressing ahead.
The Hungarian brand is devoting its human and financial resources to supporting Ukrainian refugees and creatives.
Today, however, some of the larger players have started to make public statements. Burberry is donating to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal to provide urgent aid and will also be matching employee donations to charities supporting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. “These are incredibly difficult times for many people and our thoughts are with all those impacted by the crisis,” Burberry said in a statement.
Balenciaga donated an undisclosed sum to the World Food Programme, while Gucci donated $500,000 to the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, according to Instagram posts. Kering also donated to the UNHCR, though the sum was undisclosed. “We hope for a peaceful resolution of this conflict,” Kering said on Instagram. (Kering, Gucci and Balenciaga could not be reached for comment.) Rival luxury conglomerate LVMH, owner of Dior, Fendi and Louis Vuitton, has not responded to the war and could not be reached for comment.
OTB Group, which owns brands including Maison Margiela and Diesel, announced today that it also donated an undisclosed sum to UNHCR. “OTB was the first Italian fashion group to respond immediately to the international UNHCR appeal and give a concrete contribution to the crisis,” says Arianna Alessi, vice president of the company’s OTB Foundation told Vogue Business. “Unfortunately, the crisis is constantly evolving, and we are also in contact with the organisations that are managing the arrival in Italy of people fleeing Ukraine to help ensure the fastest and most complete integration possible,” she said in a statement.
Ganni announced via its Instagram that founders Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup donated 100,000 krone (approximately $15,000) to the Danish Refugee Council to provide emergency relief on the ground in Ukraine. “We stand in solidarity with all our teams and communities across nationalities in this dark time,” the statement said. The company is aligning with international sanctions and freezing all trade with Russia. Ganni is encouraging donations and posted the link to do so in its Instagram bio.
The handful of larger players making a stand, join with the smaller brands who have been quicker to start posting resources and donating. Digital fashion marketplace DressX, whose founders are Ukrainian, is actively raising funds for the crisis by creating a digital fashion collection where all proceeds go to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and charitable funds. The company is also providing support payments to Ukrainian colleagues and has developed channels to connect with them and ensure their families are safe. “We help as much as we can, collecting money, incentivising our international friends to send petitions to local authorities, and we need to make sure this is stopped as fast as possible as civilians are dying,” co-founder Daria Shapovalova, who is Ukrainian, told Vogue Business.
“The reason why major global brands — in luxury or not — may be reluctant to engage in global politics is that politics is divisive by definition, while major global brands are trying to appeal to all,” says luxury analyst Luca Solca. “These brands will be more thoughtful and will ponder their decisions with greater attention. By contrast, small brands have only to gain from taking a vocal and divisive stance. They are trying to carve a niche for themselves; appealing to this or that specific audience will do.”
Others are less impressed. “To be honest I would have thought we would see more action and initiatives from the big brands. Hopefully we’ll see that in the coming days,” says Simon Hogeman, co-founder of Swedish independent menswear retailer Très Bien. The retailer, which posted a statement of support on Instagram on Thursday, hasn’t yet started a fundraiser, but is hoping to support Ukrainains locally in Sweden when they arrive.
Estonian designer Roberta Einer, who has been posting resources on social media since the invasion on Thursday, says that the industry should also be supporting the Ukrainian models, designers and editors who attended Milan Fashion Week and are now considered refugees because they can no longer travel home. “People are continuing to share Fashion Week parties, events and collections as normal, and it’s almost like it hasn’t hit them that we’re on the borderline of World War Three.”
“In the face of any crisis, tragedy such as war requires us all to come together. Fashion can absolutely wait,” Paris-based Elleme creative directors and founders Jingjing Fan and Stéphane Tieu told Vogue Business. Elleme began raising funds for Unicef on Sunday and has had 10 unique sales from its blue and yellow products since then, some of which customers have purchased two or three times per order. “Under these exceptional circumstances, we can use our voice as a tool to unite together and use our platform to help those that are affected.”
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