OUTLOOK project again has granted Kyiv with the colorful holiday, exactly, the display of national costumes of the world nationalities Fashion of the Nation.

OUTLOOK is the project that works in the scope of cultural diplomacy and mass media, in collaboration with the foreign diplomatic missions and similar organizations and for the third time year by year arranges thematic events one of which became the holiday of fashion and beauty Fashion of the Nation. The initiative of its organization was actively supported by the executives of Institute of international relations of Kyiv National University named after Taras Shevchenko, particularly, its director Valeriy Kopeyka and department Fund of development of Institute of International Relation.

Greeting the guests, the head of the project OUTLOOK Darya Karyakina emphasized that with this display we demonstrate the cultural diplomacy in action: ‘In nowadays world the cultural diplomacy is the sturdy union of art and politics as well as important power in maintaining international relations. Multicultural picture of the world is various, so, we would like to show its multifacetedness and encourage the keeping of mutual respect and friendly dialogue.

The word from diplomatic service was taken by the dean of diplomatic corps, particularly, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkmenistan to Ukraine Nurbardu Amanmuradov who made an emphasis on the importance of such projects in the issues of coming together and establishment of new cultural connections between states, opening of prospects for collaboration among the representatives of a new generation.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lebanon to Ukraine Mrs Klod Halil Al Hadjal in her turn said:

‘For me it is extremely pleasant to take part in the today show. We always support the bright and unforgettable initiatives of OUTLOOK project. The current disply is connected with the national clothes, one of the most important components of the achievements inherent to every country. Today it is a wonderful chance to see the variety of cultural and historical sources of nations’.

There was a greeting from the vice-principal on the scientific and pedagogic work of Kyiv National University named after Taras Shevchenko Petro Beh who gave a compliment in the view of application at fifteen world languages towards the present diplomats from more than thirty countries.

The deputy director of Institute of International Relations on the scientific and pedagogic work responsible for the international connections Igor Golubiy remarked that arrangement of the similar cultural and education events is important and necessary for the future diplomats because many of them are going along the world with diplomatic missions maintaining friendly relations between countries and nations.

The head of board and co-founder of 'Fund of development of Institute of International Relations' Valentina Mazurenko added: 'It is significant that the holiday of culture and beauty happens before the spring. Culture and beauty represent the main components of the nation's spiritual power. Moreover, verily in the spring three years ago we created 'Fund of development of Institute of International Relations' as the new way of communication with the Institute's graduates. So, they come back to us with new initiatives, how it happened today in the project of Darya Karyakina. I am convinced that holiday of cultures will year by year gather more friends inside our educational establishment and will bring numerous prolific deads'.

On behalf of Directorate-General for Rendering Services to Diplomatic Missions, the executive of advertising and publishing department Inna Andriychuk took the floor giving a notice that the prolific collaboration and partnership of Directorate-General for Rendering Services to Diplomatic missions and OUTLOOK in the course of cultural and educational project during many years creates a positive image of Ukraine in the eyes of international community.

The official part of the opening of the display Fashion of the Nation ended with Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary as well as heads of diplomatic missions cutting the red ribbon and presentation of specially produced Wreath of friendship with the ribbons in the flowers of the flags of the participating countries. It became the symbol of mutual respect and union between nations.

The national dress is one of the traditional cultural symbols. The various colors, elements of decoration and style of design transfer the inimitable sign of each nation. It became possible to make Ukrainians familiar with the peculiarities of traditional fashion due to the support of embassies of Argentina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Moldova, United Arabian Emirates, Pakistan, Palestine, Romania, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan embedded in Ukraine, and Organization African Union to Ukraine that gloriously gave for the display the unique samples of the costumes where the future diplomats, exactly, the students of Institute of International Relations came along the catwalk.

Ukrainian culture became closer for the foreign guests due to the vocal and instrumental parties and performance of folk songs from the collectives ‘Kalinovyy gai’ and ‘Zernyatko’. The young singed and their older colleagues in colorful Ukrainian costumes with all their heart tried to energize the guests with the holiday mood and ethnic flair. It is also symbolical that the defile started verily from the demonstration of Ukrainian ancient costumes from Zakarpatie, Slobozhanshina, and Eastern Podolie that were brought with the pleasure by the collector of authentic items from city Lubna Aleksandra Gerasimova. Coming through the check of time, they have not lost their value and relevance. The differences in coloring scale of embroideries which could allow to define the region of the clothes were demonstrated by the students Margarita Bagno and Darya Temchenko.

Furthermore, at the catwalk the couple Anna Kozina and Arslan Salnikov appeared who represented Argentinian dress, particularly, practice and convenient poncho in the colors of this country’s flag and variegated skirt with the blouse which are comfortable for performance of rousing chakarera.

More than thirty types of national costumes are different within the territory of Belarus. The students Darya Filon and Eugeniy Kostoplotov in the items with fabric and embroidered elements of decoration from Polesye looked incomparable. Apart from that, the production of such costumes usually takes more than a month of tiring work.

The clothes of Bulgaria are at the same extent of variety. Sopska set of clothes was worn by Yana Kovalchuk and Konstantin Karpuhin. This costume is also called as ‘belodreshny’ because its main part is produced from the white fabric.

The guests of the event succeeded in making a little trip to Africa. Guinean clothes from natural fabric where it is comfortable to walk in such a hot climate suited Anna Karlash and Denis Bespechnyy.

Anna Bondar and Elizaveta Kushtel added bright colors from the sunny Egypt attaining in the images of ‘modern Cleopatra’.

Further, India shined at the catwalk. The colorful extract of beautiful fabric in a length of nearly five meters, particularly, sophisticated sari was worn by the student Alina Starojuk. She was accompanied by Nikita Nikitchin who dressed in elegant kurta.

Have you ever heard about the aboriginal nation minang-kabau of Indonesian island Sumatra where the fundamentals of matriarchate are ruling? The guests were lucky enough to see their wedding dresses. The students Anastasiia Kariakina and Vladimir Mazepa had to try the image of bridegroom and bride.

Two male costumes were represented from the Embassy of Republic Iraq. Vladislav Chernyshev wore traditional Arabian one consisting of white long shirt and kaffiyeh while Andrey Korniychuk succeeded in staying in the image of Kurd dressing in the trousers serval, shirt-starhany and belting himself with the unique three-meter pshteny.

The gentle dress kosetek and wealthily decorated hat-borik composing the basis of female Kazakh clothes looked beautifully at Arina Serova. While Vladislav Gladysh dressed in the cap confidently walked along the catwalk.

Cameroon is often called as Africa in miniature because of its natural variety which became the basis of not only local art and crafts, but also embodied in the shape of bright prints at the fabrics. The images of true Cameroonian beautiful girls were tried by Anna Maslova and Anastasiia Volkovinskaya.

Women in Kyrgyzstan traditionall wear atop the long white dress a caftan under the name kamzur. After the marriage the heads of Kyrgyz women are decorated with the headwear elechek. Such an image set the basis for walk of Ruslana Kornilova while the male suit consisting of traditional bathrobe with felty elements and cap was excellent at Kirill Androshuck.

Natalya Voronezkaya and Nazar Ivanchenko were able to wear Korean hanbok that is sewn from the one-tone fabrics, decorated with the golden foil in the technique kimbak.

Lebanese abaya and sharval were perfect at Mariya Dyachuk and Aleksandra Vashkolupa. The special attention of the public was paid to the headwear of the models. Tantur is the cap which used to be popular gift of bridegroom to bride for the wedding while female cap tarbush is still under the demand in the country of cedars.

Badju kurung and baju melau are the names of clothes suits from colorful Malaysia. They were demonstrated to the guests by charming Yulia Philippova and Nikita Bokatov.

The variety of colors is the main thing that differs the suit of Moldova. The favorite colors of this country’s citizens are red, green, white, and blue. All these bright tones were represented in the dresses worn by Solomia Yaskiv and Anton Usatuck.

Traditionally the women in United Arab Emirates wear colorful dresses trying atop semi-transparent capes decorated with the crystals or pearls. It is quite frequent situation when one may define the wealth of husband or parents of a girl analyzing the expensive value of finishing of cloth and fabric. At our show Anastasiia Knyazeva and Anna Kvashuk got the images of oriental beauties.

The mysterious Pakistan was represented with two traditional female costumes consisting of long universal scarf-dupatta, tunic-kurta and wide trousers. The special feature in the clothes of Vera Suprun and Anastasiia Jarkova became the head decoration muta-pute and bejeweled earrings.

The amazing embroidery that is a bit similar to the traditional Ukrainian one, at the constrasting black and white dresses is the peculiarity of Palestinian clothes. The students Irina Gorbach and Alina Boldyreva made the guests familiar with the suits of this country.

The male image of a true Romanian man is consisting of linen shirt and white trousers with the compulsory part as wide woolen or leather belt and sleeveless jacket from ovine fur while the female one is different with the non-cross-linked skirt with the thin woofed belt, decorated shirt and velvet jacket. Yulia Stan and Maxim Lesik were able to wear such suits.

A couple Yulia Voznyak and Dmitriy Semenets looked in an especially racy as they demonstrated the costumes of Sudan at the catwalk. Upon the tradition, the married woman in this country wears a dress tob that simultaneously covers body and head. The long extract of fabric is folded around the body and is leapt higher.

Following the traditions, the fair sex in Tajikistan wears dresses, shirts kurta and wide trousers of baggy style. The compulsory element of the image is the skullcap toki-kalapush with the planting print which were shown by Katerina Manjar and Sophia Bilenko.

Turkey was beaming with bright colors at the catwalk. The female dress with unique headwear and variety of decorations was worn by Anna Vakarova while Dmitriy Melnichenko accompanied her in an amazing way.

In Turkmenistan women in holidays do not leave houses without decorations. The weigh of the latest sometimes reaches more than thirty kilos. The graduate from Institute of International Relations Alisa Lisovaya demonstrated some of them. The student Alexandr Bushok could wear the extensive hat from ovine telpek and traditional bathrobe.

The models ending the defile Alexandra Panasuck and Dmitriy Murashko appeared at the catwalk as if they were from Oriental fairy-tales. Representing the costumes of Uzbekistan, they gave an opportunity to the guests of the show to see the samples of mastership of the famous Uzbek embroiderers in gold and crafty women in the technique of beads embroidery.

The wide resonance, majority of the pleased guests, high interest of mass media in the embedment of the event and amazing words from the representatives of diplomatic service and state establishments that are coming to our project up to now inspire and give a certain degree of joy. It is an encouragement for the arrangement of the new kind, patriotic, education and uniting projects in the scope of cultural diplomacy in Ukraine.

We wish to all our guests and readers to receive an opportunity to get familiar with the incomparable peculiarities of the national cultures during the visit of our events and travels along the world!

The organizers of event (OUTLOOK, Institute of International Relations, ‘Fund of Development of Institute of International Relations) would like to remark the excellent work and express the gratitude to the hosts of the event Galina Tufanova and Vladimir Bondaruk for the creation of the holiday mood, head of department of administrative police in Kyiv city sergeant Yuriy Zozulya for the support of public order. We would like to express our gratitude, as well, to all the coordinators (especially to Mariana Skoruck and Angelina Karyakina for work with models) and all the students who gave help in the organization of the event!