At Paris Fash­ion Week, we met the tal­ent­ed Daria Plaksyuk, who showed us the jour­ney of her ris­ing brand, PODYH, with high com­plex­i­ty pieces con­ceived as sep­a­rate build­ings, inspired by incred­i­ble unknown shapes and tra­di­tions.

Who is PODYH?

Daria Plaksyuk found­ed PODYH in 2020 with a vision of bridg­ing the worlds of archi­tec­ture and fash­ion. Plaksyuk’s back­ground as an archi­tect informs every aspect of her brand, from the care­ful­ly select­ed ele­ments of each design to the unique com­po­si­tions that reflect archi­tec­tur­al inspi­ra­tion. PODYH’s col­lec­tions embody the spir­it of var­i­ous archi­tec­tur­al styles, while remain­ing bal­anced in their sim­plic­i­ty and sophis­ti­ca­tion.

PODYH’s mis­sion goes beyond cre­at­ing beau­ti­ful cloth­ing. Plaksyuk’s brand inspires peo­ple to explore the world of archi­tec­ture and dis­cov­er its val­ue. By merg­ing archi­tec­ture and fash­ion, PODYH offers a unique art that you can wear, while keep­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty in mind. The brand looks towards the future with a com­mit­ment to using sus­tain­able mate­ri­als and prac­tices in all its col­lec­tions.

BRAMA: Inspired by the Architecture of Kyivan Rus

PODYH’s lat­est col­lec­tion, BRA­MA, explores Ukrain­ian archi­tec­tur­al her­itage. The col­lec­tion is inspired by the archi­tec­tur­al tra­di­tions of Kyi­van Rus.

But do you know what Kyi­van Rus was?

Kyi­van Rus was a medieval state that exist­ed from the 9th to the 13th cen­tu­ry in the region that is now mod­ern-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Rus­sia. The state was ruled by a dynasty of Varangian (Viking) ori­gin called the Rurikids. Kyi­van Rus was a sig­nif­i­cant pow­er in East­ern Europe and played a major role in the devel­op­ment of the region’s cul­ture, includ­ing art, lit­er­a­ture, and archi­tec­ture. The cap­i­tal city of Kyi­van Rus was Kyiv, which remains the cap­i­tal of Ukraine today.

Kyi­van Rus archi­tec­ture is a unique blend of grandiose forms and intri­cate detail­ing, where wood­en struc­tures were used to express a sense of pro­por­tion, har­mo­ny, and beau­ty that blends with the sur­round­ing nature.

Design­er Daria Plaksyuk com­ments on the name and mean­ings of the col­lec­tion:

Ancient Kyiv is an impreg­nable fortress sur­round­ed by earth­en ram­parts and wood­en pal­isade walls. The entrance to the for­ti­fied city is pos­si­ble only through the gate — BRA­MA. So for me, BRA­MA became the start­ing point for learn­ing about Kyi­van Rus. The BRA­MA col­lec­tion is an attempt to find a con­nec­tion with the ancient Kyi­vans, to under­stand their life and way of life at that time. Since it is the soul of the peo­ple embod­ied in wood.

The col­lec­tion’s defen­sive con­struc­tions allude to the impreg­nable fortress of Ancient Kyiv, with ele­ments such as ver­ti­cal pleats in palaz­zo trousers, rep­re­sent­ing the wood­en pal­isade. A mas­sive over­hang­ing col­lar with imi­ta­tion shin­gles mir­rors the defen­sive tow­ers-fences in a dress and top. The Dran­ka cape, cov­ered with impen­e­tra­ble scales of wood­en planks, is a rein­ter­pre­ta­tion of a defen­sive out­post.

The col­or scheme of the col­lec­tion empha­sizes the aus­ter­i­ty of archi­tec­ture and places the main empha­sis on con­vey­ing the tex­tures of archi­tec­ture through indi­vid­u­al­ly devel­oped tech­niques, echo­ing the approach­es of past mas­ters.

Sustainability. Towards the future.

PODYH is a brand that val­ues sus­tain­abil­i­ty and is com­mit­ted to reduc­ing its envi­ron­men­tal impact. The brand uses eco-friend­ly mate­ri­als in its col­lec­tions, such as linen and cot­ton. Addi­tion­al­ly, POD­HY cre­ates its cloth­ing in small batch­es, reduc­ing waste and ensur­ing that each piece is made with care and atten­tion to detail. The brand also uses local pro­duc­tion to sup­port the Ukrain­ian econ­o­my and reduce car­bon emis­sions from trans­porta­tion. Look­ing towards the future, PODYH plans to con­tin­ue explor­ing the inter­sec­tion of archi­tec­ture and fash­ion while main­tain­ing a com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty and eth­i­cal pro­duc­tion. A jour­ney we can’t wait to wit­ness. Dis­cov­er oth­er new promis­ing Euro­pean brands on our ded­i­cat­ed sec­tion.