UKRAINIAN STYLE

I’ve been in love with Ukrainian art since I first learned how to decorate Ukrainian Easter eggs ( pysanky) when I was a child. My baba taught Ukrainian folk art—she was an especially talented embroiderer—and collected pieces for the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Winnipeg. I’m not sure what she’d think of the modern interpretations of vyshyvanky, the traditional embroidered blouses that Liz Guber, our associate editor, checked out in Kyiv this summer (page148), but I can picture her inspecting the underside of the handstitched work—the true test of good embroidery. No matter the pattern, if the back was almost as neat as the front, she’d be impressed.

Daria Shapovalova, who runs one of Ukraine’s two fashion weeks, wears a pixelated folk-pattern coat by Ukrainian designer Ksenia Schnaider.

Handembroidered linen dresses by Kyiv-based designer Vita Kin (from $2,215, at matches fashion.com)