For Spring Summer 2027, KSENIASCHNAIDER changes perspective. For the first time since co-founding the Kyiv-based brand with Ksenia Schnaider in 2011, Anton Schnaider steps into the role of Creative Director, bringing his own memories, obsessions and visual references into the brand’s universe. His background in graphic design becomes central to the collection, where football shirts, racing uniforms, club merchandise, sportswear and travel clothing are reworked through the visual language of logos, numbers, flags, surnames, sponsor marks and crests. The collection, titled UTC+1, explores belonging while questioning the need to belong at all. “I like the idea of belonging, but I don’t necessarily want to have to belong to something all of the time. Everything and every belonging seems to come with a position – a flag, a team, a logo. So I thought started inventing my own” says Anton Schnaider.
That idea becomes a fictional system of affiliation, filled with pseudo logos and invented signs that look familiar but lead nowhere. “Erm” becomes a logo rather than an expression of uncertainty, while the KSENIASCHNAIDER name is fragmented into rebuses and numbers. Surnames such as “Daughterson” and “Frijondz” appear across garments with the familiarity of football shirts, but instead of identifying a particular team or nation, they create their own quiet language of friendship, kinship and connection. “I’m interesting in things that look like they have a very clear function or meaning, but then you realise they don’t quite behave the way you’d expect” says Anton. “Everything looks like it might mean something specific, but the meaning keeps moving”.
Alongside the graphic world of UTC+1 comes walkwear, a practical wardrobe for the flaneur, traveller and urban nomad. Multi pocket garments become an alternative to carrying a bag, while sunscreen bodysuits borrow from performance clothing and pseudo belts turn familiar functional details into graphic elements. Those bountiful pocketed looks are my new personal favourites for everything from music festivals to glamping, as well as the perfect packing light alternative for anyone who would rather carry their essentials on their clothes than in a suitcase or oversized bag (that’s me).
Every piece in UTC+1 was made in Kyiv at KSENIASCHNAIDER’s own production facility, continuing the brand’s long standing commitment to upcycling, zero waste techniques, experimental denim construction and finding new uses for existing materials. The season also sees KSENIASCHNAIDER return to its collaboration with Lee Cooper, taking the utility of denim into a softer, more romantic territory. The contrast of tough and delicate, practical and playful, gives the collaboration function at its core.
Credits and Partners:
Creative Director Anton Schnaider
Designers Ksenia Schnaider & Anton Schnaider
Lead Hair Richard Phillipart
Lead Makeup Artist Rossino Elia-Griffin with CMC Agency using Anua Global
Collaboration Partner Lee Cooper
Official Footwear Partner palladium, Official Show Production Partner Blonstein, Official Denim, Partner Soorty, Official Fashion Transfer 4trans, Official Hydration Partner Spraga, Official Catering People Pleaser Salad
The entire SS26 collection was designed and produced in Kyiv, Ukraine, at the KSENIASCHNAIDER atelier.
