Belarusian apparel industry, style and fashion as seen on our summer 2016 trip

During our 3 weeks visit to Minsk, Belarus this year we have done our fair share of shopping :) And no wonder: the Belarussian apparel industry  has a lot to offer! With 500 enterprises in operation in the apparel industry Belarus produces practically anything you need to be nicely dressed! We made a point to have "made in Belarus" shoes, coats, t-shirts, dress shirts, socks, undergarments, bags, belts, towels, etc. Some garments where produced right there in Minsk! This fact  makes me even more enthusiastic about our project: "Made in Huntsville" !
A few enterprises for you to explore (if you are interested) are:"Mattioli" "Milavitsa", "Elema",  "Marko", "Lenta". Lots of manufactures have their own factory stores but also supply to the department stores such as "GUM", "ZUM", "Nemiga", etc. While passing one of them we were able to catch a street fashion show. Here are some pictures:

 

Most of the garments in this fashion show are made from linen- a traditional Belarusian fabric.
Another tradition that is being revived - the embroidered items in the traditional national colors (white and red). One can find them not only on towels and national clothing but on T-Shirts, dress shirts, shorts, socks, etc.

If you like to learn more about this trend, check this link out.

To give you an example of a factory store, here are some pictures from our trip to "Elema". Can you see the sign on the left? It says "Sale"! Yeah, looks universal :)

 The backpack on me is a join venture "Mattioli" that I mentioned earlier.

Kids were bored, adults where excited :)
My husband declared he buys mainly Belarusian apparel from now on. Let me assure you, he means it :)