From the Runway to Your Wardrobe: The Future of Fashion

The annual Republican Fashion and Photo Festival “Fashion Mill-2025” has just concluded its 34th edition! To discover the most creative young fashion designers, organizers held preliminary rounds across the republic. The gala show in Minsk featured 77 young designers presenting 62 collections for children, teenagers, men, and women! What does the future of fashion look like according to young Belarusian designers, and what can we wear right now?

The Language of Traditions and Innovations

The “Fashion Mill” competition is held in the categories “Fashion School” and “Fashion Master,” offering equal opportunities to students from specialized colleges and universities, as well as experienced yet young designers. This year’s theme, “The Language of Traditions and Innovations,” inspired many collections rooted in Belarusian cultural heritage.

“We understand that without our traditions, collections by Belarusian designers will have little demand abroad. Yes, they should be trendy, but without our national touch and unique style, we won’t be interesting to the world,” says Igor Ivanov, the head of the “Fashion Mill” project.

Combining “what’s trendy now” with “what’s always trendy” is a brilliant approach. Natalia Tretyakova from Soligorsk used this in her teenage collection “Veratsennik,” featuring hand-knitted decorative elements, prints inspired by folk art, and a mix of natural fabrics and synthetics. To stand out, you can take a lace grandmother’s scarf and tie it over pants, or decorate a strict jacket with a crocheted doily. Why not?

National Traditions Meet Unique Style

While Mila Em’s collection “Vytsinanka” from the Belarusian Academy of Arts directly referenced the eponymous type of Belarusian decorative and applied art, Anastasia Menshikova’s collection (Vitebsk State Technological University) was inspired by the Japanese handkerchief “Hankachi.” The meeting of these two national traditions created a unique style.

These young designers, along with Nazar Shkirev, were invited to represent Belarus at the XIV International Young Designers Competition “Russian Silhouette.” Last year’s grand prix winner, Alexandra Gapanovich from Murmansk, draws inspiration from the aesthetics of the cold Russian North, but the collection she presented in Minsk as a guest was bright, with many “wow!” elements in color and cut. If a fashionista appeared at the Met Gala in such an outfit, she would not go unnoticed by fashion critics!

Another guest of the competition, designer Aynash Karina from Kazakhstan, showed how to subtly incorporate traditional costumes into a modern wardrobe. The author’s robe-chapans presented on the catwalk will make their owner stylish anywhere in the world—and it will be an exclusive item! Aynash noted the abundance of handmade details, unique embroidery, and ornaments in the works of young Belarusian designers, adding that she always pays attention not only to boldness but also to the labor-intensive nature of the collections.

Echoes of the Past in Modern Fashion

Kira Orlova’s collection from St. Petersburg amazed with the closeness of Russian and Belarusian cultures. Seeing a coat from the “Echo” collection in the backstage, we gasped! A classic black coat with lace cuffs and a white collar, so reminiscent of a linen towel or curtains from a hut in a Belarusian village. Our great-grandmothers and grandmothers had these in their homes! Kira was inspired by her grandmother and summer trips to Kaluga to create the collection. The designer added elements made in the unique “Tarusa weaving” embroidery technique.

“Our ancestors passed down to us their experience, traditions, and love, leaving a mark on our present,” Kira explains the concept. “Their history is woven into our lives like a thread in a pattern.” All decorative elements of the “Echo” collection are handmade using ancient techniques. Perhaps that’s why this clothing feels so warm and inviting: you want to touch it, you want to wear it.

Memories became a source of inspiration for designer Valeria Yaroshevich from the Shirokov Institute of Modern Knowledge. The collection “In Memory of Dad” was noted by professionals: in snow-white clothing, the focus is on many cutting-edge findings, and the shock value is subtly combined with craftsmanship.

Catching the Wind of Fashion

Catching fashion trends and creating something unique in their spirit. Looking at the collections of young designers, it’s clear that they know exactly where the wind of fashion is blowing: wide shoulders, oversize, full length, an abundance of ribbons, and multilayering. The hallmark of “Fashion Mill” is to show not pret-a-porter, but creative fashion where fantasy combines with craftsmanship. Not every model can be taken from the catwalk to life, but there were fashionable elements in each that you would want to add to your wardrobe right now!

“Cossack Dreams” by Yulia Tishkevich is a case where you want to enlarge children’s clothes and wear them together with your daughter. An ideal family look! Quilted cozy fabrics with small pom-poms: everything is very soft and cozy. Or the collection “Fashion Combo” by Irina Iskritskaya (Uvarovich Center for Children’s Creativity, Buda-Koshelevo District) is as if the clothes in the style of Mary Poppins were reduced for the students of this nanny-magician. My teenage daughter dreamily says that she would happily run to the gymnasium every morning in such outfits! Factories that sew school uniforms—contact Irina!

What else I wanted to take from the children’s collection to the adult wardrobe are the bags! Now at the peak of fashion is the “mermaid style”: everything in marine and water themes. Algae bags from the collection “Orzhavennik” (a swamp spirit in Belarusian mythology) by 17-year-old Varvara Kruteleva from Novopolotsk will become a stylish addition to a fashionable image.

Fashion for the Bold and the Brave

While it’s relatively easy to captivate little fashionistas and their mothers with unusual designer items, creating a collection for teenagers and young men that makes them say “I will wear this!” is not simple. You need to compete with mass-market trends and famous labels. Designer Nadezhda Nikulina from Gomel drew inspiration for her collection “Alter Ego” from the style of the film “Fight Club”: combining boxing gloves and shorts with lace and faux fur is for strong-spirited guys who are not afraid to withstand attention and discussion.

In an industrial spirit, the rebellious collection “Compromise” by Daria Verbitskaya and Varvara Sidorova (Mogilev) was created, featuring batik, airbrushing, and leather burning in its decor. Valeria Kharen from Vitebsk in the collection “Brigade” creates a unique accent of the image with a whole series of work gloves of different kinds sewn onto the clothes and worn on the models’ hands.

A debutant of the competition and a finalist in the “Fashion School” category, Ivan Mirny from Baranovichi, sews clothes in which he himself, a stylish guy, will not get lost in the crowd. His collection “CIUV” was inspired by sporty off-road vehicles, and the resulting collection evokes thoughts of stone-impassable jungles of modern cities. We are sure that friends are already turning to him today for a fashionable item in a single copy.

The best designer of the men’s collection was named Sergey Kurokhtin from Gomel—a veteran of “Fashion Mill,” participating in the competition since 2008. His eccentric collection “3826,” inspired by the computer game Atomic Heart, combines fabric painting with upcycling.

For more information on the latest fashion trends and events, visit the official website.