Why Lithuanian designers are betting on a Fashion Week of their own

When FashionUnited asked designer Kęstutis (Kestas) Rimdžius what he felt was currently lacking or missing within the Lithuanian fashion scene, he was quick to answer. Not talent, nor creativity or skill, but rather a larger platform to showcase what local designers are capable of. “As we are a small country, I feel we lack international recognition at times,” he says to FashionUnited.

It’s one of the reasons why Kestas, a Lithuanian household name who has been working in the industry for 25 years, will be participating in the second edition of Vilnius Fashion Week (VFW), in spite of having shown at Paris and Riga Fashion Week. Returning after a 25-year hiatus in 2025, it is also the reason why the organisers behind Vilnius Fashion Week (Elle Lithuania and Elle Baltic) are aiming to grow the event well beyond its country’s borders.

“We’d like to put Vilnius on the international fashion map,” Berta Čaikauskaitė, head of communications at Vilnius Fashion Week, tells FashionUnited. Keen to attract more international media coverage, VFW has ambitious goals for its annual event. “We need to be bold and ambitious if we want to grow.” Running from August 28 to September 7, the week centres on Elle Iconic Night at the Grand Courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes, where ten Lithuanian designers will present curated collections, ranging from capsules made exclusively for the event to seasonal work. Kestas is among them, attending for the second year running, as is Agnė Kuzmickaitė, an experienced stage and costume designer who runs her own eponymous label.

Why VFW is focusing on visibility: a domestic market of 2.8 million isn’t enough

Expanding on last year’s event in terms of programme, designers showing and likely attendee numbers, both VFW organisers and designers agree on the importance of global reach. “Lithuanian brands cannot depend on our home market alone,” Kestas says. With a current estimated population of approximately 2.8 million, the country is simply too small to sustain the growth of an established brand, like his or Agnė’s. It’s why he will continue to show abroad as well as in his home city, as he wants to help bring international recognition to the country’s capital rather than chasing it elsewhere.

“Riga, Paris and Vilnius Fashion Week all have their own unique energy and atmosphere, and I enjoy showing at all of them. But it's important to have a strong market where you are based, to show at your own Fashion Week and connect with local buyers and clients.” Agnė, who has previously shown her collections during London, Berlin and Paris Fashion Week, shares similar views. “Having our own Fashion Week is very important,” she says as she shares photographs of the upcoming pieces she is set to showcase. “Designers need a platform like fashion week to connect with a bigger audience.” In addition to showing at VFW in September, Agnė will also host her own fashion show in October, where she can stage the entire show aligned with her vision.

The price of showing at international fashion weeks

However, the price of visibility does not necessarily come cheaply, as Kestas and Agnė know all too well. When Kestas had everything aligned for his Paris Fashion Week debut this March, unexpected travel disruption meant that his models, hair and makeup team, and even parts of his collection were not able to travel as planned. Add in a venue change, and things seemed pretty bleak. But rather than cancelling his debut, he managed to reroute and rebook everything needed for his show - at a considerable additional cost. “You do not want to know how much money I spent,” he says. “But we managed to pull everything together in the end.” Although he was afraid that, due to the show changes, only his friends and loyal clients from Lithuania would attend, international buyers and editors came in the end, and the show was a success.

“I do wish there was more transparency when it comes to the financial aspects of staging a Fashion Week show,” Agnė stresses. While attracting a larger clientele goes hand-in-hand with growth, she wonders how that growth is meant to be funded. “Securing the right financial backing” is among “the most difficult parts of running a fashion brand in Lithuania,” she says. Agnė admits that she would be open to working with a partner or financial backer to help her brand scale internationally, but not at the price of her creative independence.

Known for her flamboyant, yet current designs, Agnė initially found unexpected commercial success through her now-signature butterfly motif, which she first started printing on t-shirts and baby onesies in the early 2010s. Since then, it has become a central part of her brand, leading to a homeware collaboration of bedding that sold 600,000 pieces, far beyond her expectations, and opened her to categories she never planned to enter. Now, when she’s designing her collections, Agnė strives to find the middle ground between the creative and commercial. “Sometimes I want to create more artistic, or avant-garde designs, but I have to balance that with what my customers want and expect from me,” she says, adding that she is keen to set an example for the younger generation of Lithuanian fashion designers through her work.

VFW amongst a generational change in Lithuanian fashion design

In the 25 years since Vilnius Fashion Week took its hiatus, the fashion scene in Lithuania has changed. In the middle of what Kestas describes as “a generational change,” when he first began working in the industry, it was common for designers to have classical training, with many working as costume designers - Agnė included. “Emerging designers today are more trend-and streetwear-driven,” he notes, adding that they seem to place less emphasis on technical construction or individual style. Agnė draws a similar conclusion, saying she feels that many of the Lithuanian designers who have come and gone over the years struggled to stay culturally relevant because they went “too trendy.”

It’s not just the creative scene of Lithuanian fashion that has changed; the social dynamic has shifted too. Kestas shares that in the past there was a larger sense of competition among designers in the country, with some being quick to talk the other down. But in recent years, that sense of rivalry has given way to camaraderie and mutual support, which is why events like VFW matter to him as a proponent of local fashion. “It’s nice to see so many designers supporting one another now, and becoming encouraging to one another,” he says.

As the overall Lithuanian fashion industry continues to work out what and where it wants to be, Agnė offers some insight on where it landed. Growing up while the country was still under Soviet rule, she recalls watching television commercials once Lithuania gained independence and unintentionally absorbing the messaging regarding what commercial success. Think big, polished, highly stylized, and loud ads showcasing why you need a certain imported product in your life. It's messaging that she is still partly unravelling to this day.

Balancing creativity and commercial viability in Lithuanian Fashion

Part of her way to do so is to look closer to her roots and heritage for inspiration. Agnė’s recent collections reflect her background as a costume designer and include references to Lithuanian national dress, worked into headpieces, dresses, and scarves. A take that an older generation of designers practiced as art, because art was the only register available, is now returning as identity.

That, perhaps, is the real ambition behind Vilnius Fashion Week's second edition, not to just put Lithuanian designers in the spotlight in front of international editors, but to give a generation still defining success on its own terms a stage of its own to do it on.