In Conversation with Anna Petrova, Founder of Startup Ukraine

In Conversation with Anna Petrova, Founder of Startup Ukraine

LA Fashion Week is growing. The organization, which started in 2000, doesn’t have the same deep-rooted history as Paris, Milan, London, or even New York Fashion Week. But LA is attracting fresh talent from around the world, investing in small brands, and partnering with international organizations like Startup Ukraine, an entrepreneurial center which sponsored eight designers to show in LAFW at the New Mart in March.

Startup Ukraine began 12 years ago, after Anna Petrova set out to found her first company at 21 years old and discovered that there were no entrepreneurial development programs in Ukraine. The center hosts programs, workshops, and bootcamps for small businesses and prospective entrepreneurs. Ukrainian Fashion Forward is one of these programs. UFF focuses on training fashion designers to show and sell in international markets. The Garnette Report sat down with Anna Petrova this week to learn more about the Ukrainian Fashion Forward initiative and Startup Ukraine’s mission.

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Q: So, what exactly is Ukrainian Fashion Forward within Startup Ukraine and how did that initiative begin?

A: We were focusing on creative industries and one of the strongest industries in Ukraine is definitely the fashion industry, and they’re more established to be presented on a global level. Everything started 11 years ago when I started the narrative in Ukraine “Made in Ukraine” and started to popularize [the slogan]. I always dreamed of making “Made in Ukraine” global, so people know we have beautiful brands and that’s why even before the full-scale invasion in 2022 it was in my goals for the year to make some project around promoting “Made in Ukraine” brands.

When [the invasion] started, we were focusing more on supporting refugees and people inside Ukraine. Then in 2022 I was in the US to receive an award for what we were doing in Ukraine. That day I met one of my partners in the project, Chris Lynch, and he supported my idea for promoting “Made in Ukraine” globally and focusing on the US market. Then it was connecting the dots. The last part was to find our other partner Fashion Tech Works at The New Mart where our showroom was presented during March. Then LA Fashion Week happened there and they supported us.

The Ukraine Fashion Forward program was designed as a three month support program for ten Ukrainian fashion brands to work on and prepare a go-to-market strategy for the US. We started in February on an overview of the US market, [to see] how everything is working, and prepare for the LA experience. We were here in March for two weeks. Now in April we will have a final session of workshops for mentors to create go-to-market strategies to pitch to experts at the end of April.

This two week experience working with fashion shows, working with mentors, experts, with media [was] to focus not just on brands and go-to-market strategies – sure that’s important – but also an opportunity to remind about Ukraine, to remind that we have beautiful creative brands, creative people in Ukraine. We’re not just fighters we’re creators, [which] was one of our main important messages.

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Q: Congratulations! I was wondering if you wanted to highlight any of the designers and tell me why these designers were selected for the program?

A: Honestly, it was really hard to choose because we had near 100 applicants and just ten spots. We had criterias for how we choose; businesses that are more established brands with more than two or three years on the market, that they definitely need to be ready to enter the US market, that they have factories so we can be sure they can deliver results, and that they know English because all of the program was in English. […] We chose twenty-three to interview, and honestly it was really hard, it was a nightmare to choose out of twenty-three just ten.

What was really nice was that we [could] choose very different designers – more sustainability, more elegant, more casual, swimsuits, lingerie, and heritage brands with embroidery. [Petrova laughs] I always cannot say this word, it’s a hard word for me. We tried to show the variety of what we have in Ukraine, different designers. That’s why I want to highlight all of them. In the program we have ten but two couldn’t make it to the US.

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I ask about the two brands that couldn’t make it, but Anna is hesitant to talk about them. She tells me she prefers to highlight the ones who were able to present at the event.

A: Better to notice who could manage. It’s really not easy! To come, to focus, to produce during missile attacks, during bombs. All of the collections [were] made during wartime, during problems with electricity, with shelling, problems with labor because a lot of refugees left Ukraine and the designers need to find a new team. It’s really difficult to create now in Ukraine but still these people have huge courage to do that and to bring their collections to L.A.

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Q: Absolutely. What are you hoping that people will take from this event? What thoughts or ideas do you hope to impart on American audiences?

A: I really wanted people to see us, Ukraine, in another perspective. I wanted to inspire them to support us and to buy Ukrainian brands because that’s also a big part of support. It’s really important [for the economy] to be sustainable in Ukraine. We had a video about Ukraine at the opening which invited everyone to Ukraine after the victory because we really believe that Ukraine is beautiful and we have a lot to show to the world. That was our main idea and message and I hope that we could inspire Americans to put Ukraine on their bucket list. I hope for our brands that they will understand more how the L.A. markets work, […] to understand how business works here, to understand American behaviors, and I hope for the future that this year or next year they will be prepared for the market and ready to have their first contract with some buyers. It will bring awareness of “Made in Ukraine” here and I hope globally.

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Q: So what’s on the horizon for Startup Ukraine?

A: Definitely we want to focus international projects and to develop Ukrainian Fashion Forward. Our plan is to establish a Ukrainian business embassy project that will focus on international trade, relationship, and business development, not just in fashion but Ukrainian Fashion Forward will be a part of it. We see opportunities in the US market, in the UK, in Scandinavian countries, and we want to establish more roots in L.A. We’re focusing on developing projects around building showrooms or to have our own representative here for more business development for these designers. We see opportunity for our brands to be presented here and I hope in the near future we will have more designers in our project. I’m sure we will have very successful stories on the American market for our Ukrainian brands – and for us as a project. And I hope to participate next year in Los Angeles Fashion Week for sure.

Thank you so much for speaking with me!

A: Thank you!

Learn more about Startup Ukraine and sign up to donate to Ukrainian entrepreneurs at startupukraine.com.