"I think that in the future, all clothes will be unisex," says Ukrainian designer Julia Efimchuk. "I like the mix." And the mix is what it's all about—Efimchuk's young label, Yulia Yefimtchuk+, and Ukraine-based online retailer Hako recently released an AW13 collection that includes pants, shirts, dresses and skirts for both women and men, all inspired by skate culture and British mods. "In Kiev, a lot of guys belong to the street subculture," notes Efimchuk, who declares music her number one source of inspiration. You can see all of the looks from the collection here.
I love the simplicity of the line and how easy it'd be to mix and match pieces, not to mention there's totally an undercurrent of the religious garb influence we talked about over the summer. That first image in particular brings to mind Steve Salter's conversation with Nicomede Talavera, in which the designer talks about turning to Muslim students in East London for sartorial inspiration. The fact that this is coming from Ukraine, but still has that vibe to it, is really amazing to me. There's also something of space-age uniformity about it, something Big Brother pod person-y, which I think could be really fun. You know. And I love that each look is paired with sneakers and that multiple beanies were involved in the making of this lookbook—nice food for thought for our modern grunge/neo-grunge/post grunge discussion, no?
As for Hako, well, they have a dedicated 'Unisex' menu tab so...#winning. (Another favorite in store is the OMELYA atelier sweatshirt, serving a mix of Balenciaga and Juun.J realness—check it out!)
