The Garden of Awakening: TG Botanical SS26

London based makeup artist and beauty editor Astrid Kearney reports for ZOOT from Copenhagen Fashion Week SS26, diving deep into the season’s standout shows with rare backstage access and a sharp eye for detail. Blending beauty insight with designer storytelling, she connects with the creatives and philosophies behind the collections.

This is all about the guest presentation of TG Botanical, a sustainable fashion brand founded in 2021 by Ukrainian designer Tetyana Chumak.

Article by Astrid Kearney

Photos Viktoriia Rudnik

& James Cochrane (credited below his images)

Illustrations Louise Boughton & Anna Huang/Dolls in a Row from Drawing Cabaret Couture

Copenhagen Fashion Week SS26 brought its usual mix of innovation, sustainability, and Nordic cool—but one guest presentation stood apart. Ukrainian brand TG Botanical delivered a quietly powerful collection, blending natural fibers, earthy tones, and the quiet resilience of a nation in turmoil.

Astrid Kearney, Irish/Norwegian makeup artist and ZOOT contributor, was drawn to its deep-rooted philosophy. “There’s a sincerity in TG Botanical’s work,” she noted. “It feels rooted—literally and emotionally.”

Founded by Tetyana Chumak in 2021, the label has gained cult status for its plant-dyed fabrics and slow-fashion ethos. In Copenhagen, it offered something more: clothing as memory, resistance, and hope.

Astrid’s reportage for ZOOT captures the atmosphere, textures, and emotional undercurrents of this standout show—where fashion and philosophy walked hand in hand.

Spring is not just a season; it is a state of inner renewal, a quiet unfolding mirrored in fabric, form, and spirit. TG Botanical’s SS26 collection, conceived by Ukrainian designer Tetyana Chumak, was presented deep within nature itself, a living stage where sunlight filters through leaves, wind stirs the branches, and every shadow holds a hint of enchantment. Chumak draws on her upbringing in a family of Ukrainian farmers, and her work is a meditation on returning to roots, nurturing growth, and celebrating resilience.

Each garment, sculpted with TG Botanical’s signature elastic ruching, takes on a life of its own. Textures echo the earth—berries, soil, the softness of petals—while open tops, bustiers, and corset-inspired silhouettes reveal delicate contours of the body.

Bright yellow pieces radiate the warmth of sunlit fruit, while fringed dresses sway and ripple like grass and roots, responding to the rhythm of wind and movement. Voluminous skirts and trousers drift effortlessly, suggesting freedom of body and spirit. Body-skimming dresses bloom with ruffles and puffs, tenderly unfolding with each step, while openwork knits and textured weaves honour the heritage of feminine craft, reimagined through a modern lens.

Linen hues evoke the first light of dawn, serene and quiet, while structured tops and vests give architectural grounding, allowing the wearer to stand strong, rooted yet unrestrained. This collection is about rising up—cultivating strength while honouring vulnerability, lifting oneself with care, attention, and a deep connection to heritage. 

The models seemed to have emerged from magic within the forest. Their hair flowed freely, catching the dappled sunlight with every movement, soft as a gentle breeze through the trees. Their skin glowed with a dewy radiance, as if kissed by morning mist, blending seamlessly with the lush, living landscape around them. Each figure felt alive, suspended between the earthly and the otherworldly, as if the forest itself had breathed them into being. 

In this enchanted garden, the garments and their wearers are inseparable from the landscape. Every fold of fabric, every sway of fringe, every sun-kissed gleam feels alive, as if nature itself stitched the collection into being. TG Botanical SS26 is a celebration of femininity, craft, renewal, and the resilient spirit of its Ukrainian roots—a world where fashion and the magic of the forest meet, rise, and bloom together.