Feeling pretty in PASKAL
Innovative in design and playful in execution, PASKAL has us feeling all kinds of cute.
The delicate silhouettes, minimalist shapes and expertly crafted elements that act as key components of PASKAL’s designs create a structural aesthetic with a side of effortless femininity.
Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Julie Paskal founded PASKAL in 2013 and describes her pieces as ‘sensitive design with a strong personality’. Starting her design journey in architecture and engineering, Julie seamlessly incorporates clever construction and structure when creating her ready to wear. Based in Paris, PASKAL transforms the inspiration of brutalist Soviet architecture and turns it into a thing of beauty with immaculate attention to detail. The advanced laser cutting techniques that act as a key element of PASKAL’s designs give a doll-like appeal to her pieces and are carefully placed with mathematical precision, ensuring the fabric moves with graceful fluidity.
Aside from her brand, Julie Paskal, together with her partner, runs a small textile and production factory in Kiev. Facilitating the clothing’s journey from start to finish, ensuring the quality of the fabric and knowing who has constructed it, plays an important part in PASKAL’s brand ethos. Believing that the Maidan events of 2013 helped shape her business, the factory was created during a time in which seamstresses were too afraid to venture outside amidst the crisis.
Drawing many parallels with the new wave of Tbilisi based designers, the post-Soviet existence plays a huge part in inspiring a unique approach with the Eastern Bloc creatives. As part of a new ‘fashion revolution’, PASKAL is one of the key players in shaping Ukraine as a country of powerful women, with each design reflecting the juxtaposition of strength and femininity perfectly.
Words by Alexandra Oliver