The New Ukrainian Aesthetic: Wartime Design, Fashion and Expression

War is not only a crucible of violence and loss — it is also a catalyst for reinvention. Amidst the rubble of shattered cities and lives, Ukrainians have cultivated a new aesthetic language: one born of resistance, scarcity, solidarity and pride. In shelters, studios, and on the battlefield itself, a distinct and distinctive wartime Ukrainian aesthetic has emerged — one that fuses national identity with functionality, folklore with futurism, and grief with grit.

This aesthetic is not imposed from above or crafted for export. It is visceral, improvised and defiantly local. It is what happens when soldiers wear vyshyvankas under body armour, when air raid shelters become galleries, and when a sunflower peeks defiantly through the crack in a bullet-riddled wall.

Designing Under Fire

From the first weeks of the 2022 full-scale invasion, Ukrainian designers faced the challenge of creating not for beauty alone but for survival. Yet necessity proved a fertile muse.

Graphic design, especially for resistance posters and digital media, flourished. Sharp contrasts, minimalist symbols and the blue-and-yellow colour palette dominated everything from municipal signage to social media avatars. Volunteer groups adopted clean, bold branding, while official government campaigns — such as “Be Brave Like Ukraine” — leveraged both clarity and emotional force.

The Kyiv-based design agency Banda, known internationally before the war, pivoted quickly to wartime communications, creating visual identities for everything from donation drives to battlefield awareness campaigns. Their stark imagery — powerfully understated — helped galvanise support at home and abroad.

Meanwhile shelters and checkpoints became canvases. Graffiti artists painted anti-Putin caricatures next to verses of poetry. Sandbags were spray-painted with tridents. In liberated towns, children painted national flags on rubble.

Form followed purpose — and purpose was to survive with dignity.

Fashion as Armour and Identity

Even in war, fashion has remained a powerful language of selfhood and defiance. Traditional vyshyvankas — embroidered shirts that once belonged to heritage festivals — became daily wear again. Soldiers have been buried in them. Volunteers sew modern camouflage vyshyvankas in khaki and grey for the front.

Designers like Svitlana Bevza, Ksenia Schnaider, and the team at Gunia Project reoriented their work towards wartime relevance. In some cases, this meant literal camouflage — but in others, it meant symbolic protection. The motifs of Trypillia, ancient Slavic paganism or Orthodox iconography became more prominent. A blouse was no longer just a blouse — it was a shield, a statement, a memory.

Some fashion labels shifted to producing gear for soldiers and displaced people: thermal underwear, boots, bulletproof vests. But they didn’t abandon beauty. Even in uniforms, touches of embroidery, hand-stitched patches, and folklore references reminded wearers of who they were fighting for.

A new silhouette has emerged: practical, layered, padded — not unlike wartime itself.

Cultural Expression in Crisis

Artists, writers and musicians have all helped articulate this new aesthetic. Galleries in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv began hosting exhibitions in bunkers. Themes of displacement, resilience, absurdity and silence dominate recent works. Sculpture has turned toward fragments. Poetry has shortened. Performance art has often migrated to Instagram and Telegram.

Contemporary Ukrainian cinema, even when unfinished due to blackouts or displacement, reflects a rawness and intimacy: close faces, handheld shots, documentary textures. The aesthetic is not polished, because the country is not polished — it is burning, building, surviving.

Music, too, has transformed. Punk, folk, techno, and hip-hop all carry a sharpened edge. The band Kalush Orchestra, who won Eurovision 2022, set the tone — a blend of Carpathian tradition and modern resistance. Many frontline units now have unofficial anthems — often created in the trenches, recorded on smartphones, and shared like digital war chants.

Digital Resistance and Symbolic Language

The war has played out not only in trenches but in feeds and timelines. Ukrainians quickly mastered visual semiotics for the digital age:

• The tractor pulling the tank;

• The grandmother with the flag;

• The Saint Javelin icon, fusing religion and RPGs.

These were not official campaigns — they were memes, born organically, yet laced with deep symbolic power. They served as morale, mockery, and mobilisation all at once.

Meanwhile, the ubiquitous use of the trident (tryzub), the national flag and local municipal coats of arms has grown dramatically. Urban branding has fused with patriotic symbolism, turning towns and cities into graphic identities of resistance.

The Aesthetic of Absence

But not all of Ukraine’s new aesthetic is active. Much of it is absence:

• The missing windows, blacked out with tape;

• The empty photo frames where families once smiled;

• The blank spaces on walls where monuments stood, hastily taken down for protection.

This too is design — a mourning, a waiting. It is a placeholder for what will come next.

Conclusion: A Country That Dresses to Endure

Ukraine’s wartime aesthetic is more than a trend. It is a record of what a nation wears, builds, and imagines under siege. It reflects a country that chooses symbolism over surrender, form over forgetting. It insists that utility and beauty can — must — coexist, even when nothing else feels certain.

In bunkers, on runways, through apps, and across ruins, Ukrainians have answered the question:

What does defiance look like?

It looks like stitches. Like slogans. Like survival. Like style.

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Visual References and Artworks

1. “Saint Javelin” Icon – by Christian Borys

• Medium: Digital illustration, widely adopted.

• Style: Eastern Orthodox iconography meets modern warfare.

• Significance: Became a viral image of resistance. Sales funded humanitarian relief. Symbolises sacred defence.

2. “Kyiv Tape” Window Crosses

• Medium: Photography / Urban visual motif.

• Description: Black duct tape crosses on windows to reduce shatter during explosions.

• Symbolic Layer: Absence, fragility, preparation. Has become a visual shorthand for Ukraine’s endurance.

3. “Kharkiv Shelter Walls” – Local Graffiti Projects (2022–2023)

• Medium: Street art in subway stations.

• Content: Folk motifs, war slogans, sunflowers, children’s drawings.

• Civic meaning: Shows how aesthetics provide comfort, continuity, and communal identity under fire.

4. Photographs by Yevhen Maloletka and Emilio Morenatti

• Medium: Documentary war photography.

• Why it matters: These Pulitzer Prize-winning images depict not only destruction but visual composition—juxtapositions of beauty and terror, like a painted fingernail beneath a bloodied sleeve, or a woman in embroidered dress amidst ruins.

Contemporary Ukrainian Designers

1. Bevza (Svitlana Bevza)

• Style: Minimalist, ethereal, often monochrome.

• Wartime shift: Collection “Fragility” featured symbolism of ancient Slavic ornaments as protective elements.

• Notable: One runway look included a ceramic vyshyvanka charm as a pendant — meant as a talisman for survival.

2. Ksenia Schnaider

• Style: Deconstruction, denim, utilitarian silhouettes.

• Wartime influence: Embraced tactical materials and modular clothing referencing military gear.

• Signature piece: Patchwork jeans made from upcycled surplus gear.

3. Gunia Project

• Product line: Hand-painted ceramics, woven textiles, sacred art.

• Wartime aesthetic: Revives pre-Christian and early Orthodox visual traditions — Trypillia symbols, Hutsul geometry, folk saints — as cultural resistance.

• Notable: Created a “Peace Candle” project, blending liturgical design with contemporary motifs.

4. Frolov (Ivan Frolov)

• Pre-war style: Haute couture, bold sensuality.

• Wartime transition: Integrated military symbolism — leather harnesses with embroidery, khaki silk vyshyvankas.

• Cultural role: Designed costumes for national performances that reinterpret wartime femininity.

Notable Artworks or Cultural Projects

1. The Museum of Civilian Voices – by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

• Type: Archive of first-person war experiences, many with accompanying photographs and curated personal items.

• Relevance: Serves as visual documentation of displacement aesthetics — what people carry, wear and create in transit.

2. Ukrainian Wartime Poster Archives (online & at Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv)

• Collection: Posters from 2022–2025 by independent artists.

• Motifs: Wolves, tractors, the trident (tryzub), molotov cocktails, children’s drawings.

3. Shelter Art Project – Lviv Municipal Initiative

• Concept: Transforming bomb shelters into community art hubs.

• Outcome: Created collaborative murals and performances, largely led by displaced women and children.

Where to See or Learn More

• Pinchuk Art Centre (Kyiv): Hosts contemporary wartime art exhibitions.

• Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv): Leading institution documenting and curating Ukrainian cultural heritage during conflict.

• Ukrainian Fashion Week (resumed in 2023): Many designers showcase symbolic wartime themes.

• Instagram Accounts:

  
  

  • @saintjavelin

  • @gunia_project

  • @kseniaschnaider

  • @maloletka_y

  • @bevza