A black polo shirt wouldn’t register as a provocative fashion statement in most settings. Yet the long-sleeve, stand-collar polo that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House last week proved one of the first flashpoints in a combustible interaction.
Trump commented on Zelenskyy’s attire as soon as the leader arrived at the White House. Later, a member of the press corps accused the Ukrainian president of “not respecting the dignity of this office” by failing to wear a suit.
For Elvira Gasanova, the Ukrainian designer behind Zelenskyy’s look, anyone who took offence is missing the point. “He’s a wartime leader,” she says. “In wartime, even politicians don’t need suits.”
To Gasanova, the most important element of the outfit was the tryzub or trident embroidered on the shirt. “It’s a Ukrainian national emblem and a symbol of independence,” she says over a video call from her home in Bucha, which sustained damage from Russian shelling early in the war. “His style sets a standard for leadership in the 21st century because he’s a strong person.”
Zelenskyy has hewed to a utilitarian dress code as an expression of solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He hasn’t deviated from his fitted olive and black T-shirts and half-zips for any occasion, even wearing an olive-green sweatshirt and cargo trousers to address the US Congress and meet President Joe Biden at the White House during the first year of the war.
The choice to dress in a military-inflected capsule wardrobe is a pragmatic one for a leader who spends a lot of time in a bunker. To Gasanova, it’s also evidence of the president’s integrity.
“Because Zelenskyy is a wartime leader, his clothes are not about the look. They are part of his message to the world, and the message is that he stands with his people. Even at the most high-profile meetings, Ukraine is at war, and it’s not time for a suit. We can’t wear suits when our soldiers are fighting and our people are in shelters. This is more than fashion; it’s communication.”
Gasanova has created glamorous, crystal-strewn womenswear collections through her eponymous Kyiv-based brand for 12 years. She launched Damirli, a menswear brand named after her husband, four years ago, intent on offering “strong but classic, comfortable pieces — like Loro Piana but in [the] Ukrainian style”.
She says she had dressed Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska “many times” by the time the current war broke out with Russia. Certainly often enough that she felt comfortable asking her high-profile client if she could send over a few pieces for her higher-profile husband. She knew that Zelenskyy wouldn’t respond favourably to attempts to style or overly finesse his image. “He isn’t interested in what he wears. He doesn’t have a stylist or a team that thinks about his wardrobe,” Gasanova says.
She sent a few pieces for his consideration — all elevated versions of the military-lite style the president had already adopted. He liked it. Now her label is behind many of Zelenskyy’s public-facing outfits alongside fellow Ukrainian labels such as Creative Depo and tactical gear maker M-TAC.
She’s seeing healthy demand farther from the front lines, too. “Right now a lot of people in the United States want to buy the president’s polo,” she says. “Something like 100” American customers have placed orders for the €170 shirt since last Friday, the day Zelenskyy met Trump.
Gasanova isn’t entirely averse to tailoring. In fact she designed a suit jacket for Zelenskyy “months ago”, she says, “because we thought maybe he would go to the inauguration”. He did not attend (very few foreign leaders were invited to the traditionally domestic event). Gasanova thought Zelenskyy might finally wear the military-style suit jacket to meet Trump at the White House last week. “When I saw how [the meeting] went, I thought, it’s OK that he’s not in this jacket.”
The garment she’d most like to design for her president has nothing to do with the battlefield nor foreign halls of power. “I want to make something for him [that’s] super casual, because he needs to rest,” she says. “Something he can wear one day when this horrible time is ending.”
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