Julie Pelipas : Ukrainian Entrepreneur Dreams of Changing Fashion

Legend has it that since adolescence Julie Pelipas has had a passion: transforming men's costumes like no other, with rigor but sensuality. From her looks, she made a brand, Bettter . A trademark more than a fashion brand. And from this brand, she quickly wanted to make a tool. “A technological solution,” she explains, “which offers a large-scale revaluation system for dormant stocks in the fashion industry, via a global upcycling platform allowing brands to give them a second life, thanks to a system of algorithms capable of dissecting the construction of a garment in order to best adjust it for a next customer. In 2020, we opened our first research, development and production site in kyiv. Our first models sold very quickly and then the war arrived, with what we know. Let's just say we survived it and today we're ready to go. »  

Refugee by force last year in London, where she took her family and part of her team with her, she fights daily to keep a foothold, and an activity, in her country of origin. Because behind the glamorous influencer lies a fighter with an iron will. An explosive cocktail that explains a lot of things. It must be said that with her sense of aesthetics and her experience of the market, punctuated by a good reputation on social networks, the former fashion editor-in-chief of Vogue Ukraine feels the spirit of the times like no one else. A minimalist and sexy style with a responsible stamp, made exclusively from pieces from the men's wardrobe, all from dormant stocks, listed, measured, resized and reworked, all as locally as possible, to adapt and highlight women's bodies. “The suit is our DNA,” insists the it-girl turned business leader, “and we start from the principle that if it always imposes it on a man, there is no reason why this should not be the case on a woman. It’s doing him justice! » Today, each piece passed through the Bettter mill has a passport - soon to be digital - retracing its journey, its design algorithm, the identity of the designer who worked on it, as well as the name of its new owner. As if to remind you how much these details also matter in the composition of a garment. “The fashion industry is reaching a point where it is losing all sense of the value of things. Giving it meaning again is essential for me.” The machine is underway, and it is surely for this reason, well beyond a single artistic signature and an unfailing CSR commitment, that Julie Pelipas has just won the Karl Lagerfeld prize at the LVMH Prize 2023.