Odyn Vovk

Odyn Vovk [oh•din vah•k] stands for One Wolf in Ukranian. It also stands for a LA based fashion label created by Austin Sherbanenko. His work he describes like a “reflection on my youth and being inspired by anything that sparks my curiosity. The collection is designed without the structured direction that a hard lined story would offer. I have a much more spontaneous approach. Ideas pop into my head and I follow the ones worth following.”

Austin’s family on his father’s side is Ukrainian and during their solid lifetime, they had to go through a lot of turmoil and hardship to survive. During Nazi Germany, his grandfather carried his whole family through a very difficult time and, in a sense, he was the one wolf—wolf meaning power through wisdom and strength through knowledge. He had to go through so much and was forced to survive with what they were given. Through his father, Sherbanenko was taught that he had to fend for himself and go through life in a cunning way. That’s why his credo states: “Doing whatever I have to do to survive and make it in this fucked up industry!”

Fueled by his rebellious nature as much as his unyielding ambitions, Sherbanenko sums up the case for going as far as your imagination will take you in order to push the elastic boundaries of fashion in a meaningful way. His obliquely handsome garments, which sure-footedly teeter between the bespoke and the readymade, are imbued with the perfect combination of underground flavor and a stamp of minimalism.

Oh,… and they got Tony Ward to wear the collection.

Watch the AW 2011 commercial: