Runway
Juliya Kros' FW 26/27 collection, "Transformation as a State of Conscious Strength," masterfully blends architectural cuts with multifunctional, reversible designs. Explore how this collection uses fashion as a tool for adaptation, featuring everything from neo-Georgian tailoring to the inclusive "VIM" line designed for people with prosthetics and vision loss.
Updated 07:12 pm EDT, March 17, 2026
Published 07:12 pm EDT, March 17, 2026
Photo Courtesy: Ukrainian Fashion Week
Runway Photos: Volodymyr Bosak
Backstage Photos: Serhiy Khandusenko
Special Thanks: Lisa Ushcheka
Juliya Kros' FW 26/27 collection, "Transformation as a State of Conscious Strength," masterfully blends architectural cuts with multifunctional, reversible designs. Explore how this collection uses fashion as a tool for adaptation, featuring everything from neo-Georgian tailoring to the inclusive "VIM" line designed for people with prosthetics and vision loss.
Updated 07:12 pm EDT, March 17, 2026
Published 07:12 pm EDT, March 17, 2026
Photo Courtesy: Ukrainian Fashion Week
Runway Photos: Volodymyr Bosak
Backstage Photos: Serhiy Khandusenko
Special Thanks: Lisa Ushcheka
Juliya Kros is the namesake brand of Ukrainian designer Yuliia Perekriostova. The brand was founded in 2015 and is based in the historic industrial city of Sumy. The city that lies in northeastern Ukraine was founded in the 1650s by Cossacks and remains a resilient cultural hub despite its proximity to the Russian border. Sumy remains under Ukrainian control but is frequently targeted by Russian drone and missile strikes.
This context is important to note, as Yuliia gains international recognition for her intellectual and architectural approach to fashion, despite the dangerous issues the company faces.
The brand has become characterized by complex cuts, deconstructed elements, and asymmetrical silhouettes inspired by sculpture and architecture. Interestingly, Juliya Kros has maintained a monochromatic palette primarily in black and white, which the designer believes emphasizes clarity of lines without distraction.
Another signature feature of the brand is multi-functionality with many pieces, such as reversible designs or detachable elements, allowing the customer to transform the garment into multiple different looks.
Juliya Kros’ latest collection, which is called “Transformation as a State of Conscious Strength”, artfully explores transformation as an inner human power. The ability to adapt to your circumstances and experiences is vital in the current dire situation of the brand’s homeland. What is truly amazing about the collection is that it does not try to fix or dictate identity. It instead allows the wearer to unfold their personality through the pieces.
The collection’s designs again emphasize reversible constructions, variable silhouettes and lengths, and detachable elements that can alter a garment’s function. Juliya Kros believes that even a single piece can play multiple roles in creating a mood or style. This is a response to the modern person’s need for mobility without losing integrity.
The foundational architectural aesthetic is further underlined through geometric sleeves, textured shoulder lines, and peplum belts, which sculpt the silhouette. Every detail functions with a purpose, not just a superfluous decoration.
The outfits are, of course, based in black, but interestingly enough, the brand has added blue and grey as foundational colors in the palette. Blue is specifically meant to symbolize depth, while grey speaks to stability, intellectual balance, and clarity. Within the theme of transformation, the blue/black/grey montage represents conscious change, inner balance, and the strength of calm. Juliya Kros also uses pops of serious hues such as purple, brown, orange, and tan to emphasize their message further. The world is no longer a static environment, and for better or worse, the world moves, consequently redefining its meaning. Today, our society demands flexibility and mindful choice, so, in Juliya Kros’ mind, clothing ceases to be merely a form and becomes a tool of adaptation and communication.
A striking outfit that caught the eye was a short, cropped, dusty tan jacket with what seems to be a modern interpretation of a tailcoat. The neo-Georgian jacket is well proportioned and deceptively simple, with flat buttons at the front and lining along the edge of the tail. Combined with a muted purple pair of drop-front trousers that also mimic the regency of George, Prince of Wales. It was quite beautiful in its straightforward presentation, unusual, and still super modern.
Another look, which followed the frock coat, seems quite different but nonetheless aligns with the brand’s aesthetic for this collection. It was an all-black jacket, trousers, and shirt. The jacket was the main piece in this artfully put-together outfit. It was long and draped, with an asymmetrical zipper vertically along the left chest. The jacket flowed beautifully against the body and was clearly very carefully constructed, despite its elegant, almost casual draping. The trousers were full and again matched the jacket’s draping. Together, the outfit was elegant and futuristic.
The different but cohesive outfits in this collection were not about trends. The point of the collection is about the ability to change while remaining yourself. It’s about a form that yields to the rhythm of life.
A core pillar of the brand’s future is the development of its “VIM” functional line. This includes specialized garments like 2-in-1 transformable trousers for users of lower-limb prosthetics and dresses adapted for women with vision loss. Juliya Kros is inspiring and truly deserves our support not only because it is freaking beautiful, but also because they want to improve the world and our place in it.
Recovering from an obsession with Italian-designed menswear, Alfonso decided to take a deeper look into women’s fashion to see how our relationship among clothing, society, and business has changed. Educated as an economist with an MBA, he travels between Chicago, Miami, and Mexico on a search to see what happens next to fashion.
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