By Madalena Fonseca
Tetyana Solovey, a dedicated researcher and former sustainability editor at Vogue Ukraine, has transitioned from the fashion industry to academia, driven by her passion for social and environmental change.
With a background in journalism and a keen eye for cultural trends, she has made significant developments supporting sustainability within the fashion world.
Currently pursuing a PhD in sociology at the University of Manchester, Solovey’s journey reflects her commitment to addressing the issues of sustainability and cultural impact.
“Because fashion is a mirror of society, the ability to put this mirror and to see perfectly what is going on, is metaphorically the job of the fashion editor, to see fashion as a mirror but a mirror that captures the entire picture of how the society is living right now.”
From jewellery to sustainability
Upon joining the team during the launch of Vogue Ukraine in 2012, Solovey starting as a fashion feature editor, she later started covering jewellery. Eventually, after a lot of persistency, she started to work in sustainability.
It was a crucial moment to her when she found publications from The Guardian, shedding light on the ethical dilemmas in fashion production.
“And this is how I realised that this world is promising the beauty and happiness, but it actually has costs, the cost of this beauty is so high that we need to do something, we need to change something,” she said.
This revelation pushed her towards promoting for change within Vogue Ukraine, challenging and leading discussions on sustainability with the editorial team.
Tetyana Solovey’s professional trajectory represents a fusion of journalism, cultural studies, and a deep commitment to sustainability within the fashion industry. Her seven-year period as the sustainability editor at Vogue Ukraine was a remarkable journey, during which she defended ethical production practices and conscious consumption.
Photo by Madalena Fonseca
Despite initial resistance, Tetyana’s activism lead Vogue Ukraine, under the Conde Nast umbrella, to officially embrace sustainability as a core editorial direction. Her efforts took to interesting conversations with designers, influencing them to integrate sustainability into their production processes.
“And this is how I found myself talking with designers discussing how they could implement any sustainability at their production chain,” she said.
By promoting awareness, she has played a very important role in reshaping Vogue Ukraine’s narrative, aligning it with the urgent need for sustainable practices in the fashion industry. ”It was quite insightful to learn that in a way some of them were already doing something, investing, and trying to increase the payment of their workers.”
Commitment to academia
Currently, Solovey wants to focus her commitment to the academic world. She wants to use her diverse experiences to contribute meaningfully to studies and research and inspire future generations of researchers.
”I want to stay in the academic life, I want to work as a researcher, as a teacher, technically it’s the same, I need to write to talk about things but in a different level, it’s a different methodology.”
Her advice for success in the fashion communication world underscores the importance of an extreme dedication and a complete understanding of the industry, emphasizing the need for constant self-improvement and an intuitive knowledge of cultural shifts.
“Fashion is quite a demanding industry, and is a 24/7 job, this is a job which impacts the way you think about yourself how your personality is developing. Fashion is everywhere, so this commitment to the subject inevitably will bring you to broader understanding of fashion on how it works how it has impact on people how it´s embedded in society,
“This is how you will be able to pick up something that is going to be the big next thing which you truly believe in, and this is how you will be able to make changes , not necessarily about sustainability it can be about cultural shifts, about age, body, etc…”
In essence, Tetyana Solovey represents the transformative power of activism and the inherent collaboration between academic world and industry. Her commitment to sustainability represents that there is hope, inspiring change-makers to visualize a fashion industry that is not only aesthetically captivating but also ethically responsible and culturally meaningful.
Photo by Wendy Sloane
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