“It was thanks to my country that I was able to build an international brand with only 200 euros in my pocket, and now my goal is to work even harder to rebuild everything together.” These are the words of Ruslan Baginsky, the well-known Ukrainian hat designer, who is now facing war but does not lose hope. His story is motivating and heartbreaking at the same time.
Ruslan managed to succeed by creating hats, a very difficult and niche market. But how did it happen? Ruslan began his career as a stylist for several shootings where he understood how essential accessories were to complete a look, in particular, hats. In this way, he created his first hat with feathers that he gifted to a model.
Thanks to passion, creativity and willpower, the hat designer has gone from being a simple stylist to seeing his hats worn by the coolest celebrities: Bella and Gigi Hadid, Kaia Gerber, Taylor Swift, Pamela Anderson, Janelle Monáe, Coco Rocha, Miley Cyrus, Nicky Hilton, Natalia Vodianova, Irina Shayk and many others. He then founded his brand in 2015 in Liv, then moved to Kyiv and presented the first Haute Couture collection in Paris in 2019.
Today, his team and he should be in Paris thinking about the next projects but their life and their plans have been turned upside down by the war. Now, instead, they have been forced to leave Kyiv and took refuge in a collage in Lviv, transformed into a work space. The only concern now is trying to survive and wait for this nightmare to end as soon as possible. The war has been going on for 50 days now… All we can do is ask ourselves: When is this really going to end?
I want to close this article with these words, always by Ruslan Baginsky.
”War takes away the present, but our future is peace”
