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We round out this year’s posts from Ukraine with a short visit to my hometown – Sumy, Ukraine.
This cozy Ukrainian city is where I was born, grew up, went to school and left in the glorious year 2000 – for NYC. Home to my 90s childhood lives, overflowing with memories that today feel like a past life: family, food, architecture, streets, trees, windows, doors, colors, smells… everything in Sumy has a baby-Inna story attached to it.
This trip was especially significant: Matt became the first & only person in my adult life to see Sumy – portions of my past and present collided.
Wasting no time of our short 4-day stay in the city – rising & occasionally shining by 8AM sharp, wandering the streets of Sumy – I shared memories I didn’t know I held onto.
Sumy has very different vibes from Kyiv or Lviv. If I’d use words like modern, busy, vibrant, colorful to describe the latter – I’d call Sumy cozy, warm, welcoming and to me personally – homey.
Main city attractions could take 2 days to explore: versatile architecture, theaters, museums, city center, parks and markets. However – I spent full summers here in my teens and it wound’t be enough – for a small town, Sumy has a soul visitors fall in love with.
Sumy architecture is a unique combo of modern, renaissance and Soviet modernism – with some older neighborhoods resembling a soviet regime documentary, and some areas leaning more towards a small town in western Europe.
Attractions in my photos include:
The Holy Resurrection Cathedral, built and opened in the 1700s + currently located on one of the few busy streets of the city center, with multiple outdoor cafes boasting this gorgeous view. Sumy Regional Museum (the blue round building with arched windows and intricate balconies) featuring exhibits from WWII + natural history displays. Altanka (a gazebo) serving as one of the Sumy city symbols, originally built over an oil well in early 1900s and having gone through quite literally a rainbow of paint coats since I can remember. It was blue. It was gold. It was green. Pink. Pretty sure it was purple at some point… If you live(d) in Sumy, you know it was part of local life to roll our eyes at every fresh coat of a new color of the rainbow.
“Thrifted” – I answered when asked “where’d I get it.” The top is by my all-time favorite, and now given up, brand – self-portrait.
Self-portrait mini dress, white sneakers and a plastic ASOS bag in hand, the year 2017, and our old Sony camera in hand – I created a post titled “Chapter 1 of my Sustainable Journey”, describing the sadness of quitting fast fashion.
Later that day, naturally, my self-portrait dress gets caught on a doorknob and rips…
Later that month, I decide to declutter and sell a good portion of my clothes on a thrifting app called Depop… Long story short, the dress sold for $20 (I felt the tare heavily de-valued the item + I just wanted someone else to have it). It originally cost around $600.
I bought this sweater online – this time on another thrifting app called Poshmark. It was also pre-loved (but actually sold with a tag) and also with a major discount. Which got me thinking: while thrifting, you don’t need to give up ANY un-sustainable brands. And with online thrifting apps, you have access to ALL brands in the world + not influencing demand generating supply & new production.
Depop and Poshmark are both great options for online thrifting. thredUP, RealReal (more high-end pieces) and Vestiaire Collective (also, a more pricey luxury vibe) are also solid.
Each of the 5 have an app you can download to start your search! You can also shop new items with tags, search favorite brands and follow sellers you like.
Let’s start a conversation. Tell me a little about yourself and what you thought about the post!
I approach this blog as a diary – taking you on my honest sustainable fashion & lifestyle journey, with sustainability aspects I slowly adopt, struggle with and feel passionate about. I’m building INNABOSE.COM to be an informative, visual & creative resource inspiring even the smallest changes in the world.
GENERAL BLOGGING TOPICS YOU’LL FIND HERE INCLUDE
#sustainablefashion
I’m also a Ukrainian New Yorker – having strong pride and patriotism for both: my homeland 
and my current home 
. For years, I’ve been on a side mission to capture my stunning NYC and elevate the depth and beauty of my Ukrainian culture, fashion and language (some of my posts are in Ukrainian!)
February 24, 2022 – my digital space shifted to include information about russia’s war on Ukraine, the devastation and destruction my home country is dealing with and the bravery, strength and inspiring spirit they are facing it with. A large portion of my posts today highlight Ukrainian brands, fashion, culture & the strong, incredible Ukrainians making gorgeous clothes you can buy & support local businesses, economy & people fighting for freedom every day. We are also a community who donates to Ukrainian organizations found in any of my recent posts!
#standwithukraine
Inna Bose
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