Ukraine's wedding dress industry is alive and well, despite the war
The town of Chernivtsi, once the wedding dress capital of the Soviet Union, is still churning out dresses — for the West. "We are staying in Ukraine," says a dressmaker. "We will build our economy."
CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine — American bride-to-be Nona Griffin fell in love with the first wedding dress she tried on in a small bridal shop where she lives in Dublin.
"I was like, yes, this is the dress. It has really intricate embroidery on it — the details are just really special," she told NPR over the phone.
Griffin had brought her mom along, who wanted to make sure the dress wasn't made somewhere like China. That's when they found out it was from Ukraine. It was the last week of December.
