With the battle between heavyweight champions Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium less than a week away, Usyk is expected to show off his Ukrainian heritage.
The 38-year-old will be taking two custom looks from the Ukrainian designer Elvira Gasanova — one for the pre-fight press conference and the other for a gala — for his trip to London. The undisputed champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight categories — the third male boxer in history to have achieved that — Usyk will be taking home $132 million for his rematch with Dubois, whom he first fought in 2023. More than 90,000 fans are expected to attend to catch every last swing.
Usyk and Gasanova have been collaborating for the past few years. In 2021, after one of Gasanova’s clients connected them, the designer said her reaction was, “I don’t know how. I don’t know what, but of course, I will do it.”
Usyk, whom she called a “super interesting and a super creative person,” trains in Spain, but his home is in Kyiv, Gasanova said. For the Wembley Stadium fight, as with other key appearances, she sent him a few sketches first and he offered a couple of suggestions. “It’s not just a matter of clothes. After his boxing matches, a lot of people and [members of the] press want to understand why he chose what he did,” the designer said.
This weekend’s choices include a long white jacket with a cape, which is meant to be a modern take on the Cossack. The Cossacks were seminomadic warrior people in Ukraine and southern Russia who exchanged military service for aspects of self-rule. Rounding out the look will be a traditional karakul hat, lab-grown Ukrainian diamond earrings and a brooch inspired by ancient Ukrainian jewelry. (Gasanova has a new collaboration with Solo for Diamonds.) Usyk will also have a Gasanova-designed burgundy suit — a color meant to evoke “the color of Cossack blood and bravery,” she said. The trousers’ shape is reminiscent of the traditional “sharovary” symbol of freedom. The boxer personally requested the silver embroidery on the jacket as a sign of “the nation’s code,” the designer said. That embellishment includes a grapevine motif — symbols of fertility and life, and geometric elements — signs of order and the disciplined heart of a warrior.
Needless to say, the Ukraine-based designer will be tuning in to watch the Wembley Stadium showdown live, even though it will be 2 a.m. local time. “I wanted to be there, but right now I am in my eighth month of pregnancy. That’s why I can’t be there. But of course, we will watch it.”
In the lead-up to the fight, Usyk and Gasanova have been in touch a few times each week. “I’ve been sending him lots of messages explaining how to wear everything. He’s training a lot. This is a hard time for him one week before the fight,” she said. “He’s super happy and is always smiling. He wrote to me, ‘Thank you. This is super cool and I will look super elegant.’ He is really a nice person.”
Oleksandr Usyk with Daniel Dubois during a press conference in April in London.
Getty Images
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its third year, Gasanova, who works in Kyiv during the day, said, “All of us want to think that it is coming to an end, but it’s not. Every day is harder and harder. We really don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” she said. “In the center of Kyiv, there are attacks mostly at night. I live in Bucha, which is about half an hour from Kyiv so at night it’s safer there.”
This weekend’s boxing match isn’t the only international square-off that Gasanova has been tied to. She unexpectedly became embroiled in the controversy that kicked off after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wore a long-sleeved polo shirt and casual pants that she had designed to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House. But as a result of the media exposure, many people from all over the world wanted to buy the shirt, not to wear, but as a sign of support, Gasanova said. “After Usyk’s fight, maybe it will be something else. We’ll see. He’s always heroic for Ukrainian people.”
