Alyona Shuba is from Odesa, Ukraine; she is a fashion designer whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Paris last year during fashion week. At first glance, she lit up the room with her energy and contagious laughter, and with that, there was an instant friendship. That evening we bonded over music and fashion while drinking copious amounts of cocktails among the fashion elite; this was my first ever and only in-person encounter with this Ukrainian designer. Fast forward to today, any plans we previously had for me to visit her in Odesa and see her in her beautiful country quickly came to an abrupt halt on February 24th, 2022. Now Ukrainians and many others are now fighting, donating, and/or volunteering in our respective ways to support Ukraine in this war, and people have rallied together to find their own way to support those affected by this war.
Our team at The House Magazine had reached out to Shuba in December of 2021 for a feature, and it was only recently we finally reconnected...