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As promised, the second deal-n-steal of the weekend: hand-embroidered Ukrainian pieces that you can actually afford (Google translate says яй! is Ukrainian for yay! - so we're going with that).

These traditional Ukrainian embroidered items entered the scene not so long ago (based on my shop-while-I-stalk tendencies, I remember Anna Dello Russo, Giovanna Battaglia, and Leandra Medine (aka the powers that be) were amongst the first to rock 'em).

From the second I laid my eyes on those colorful balloon sleeves and rich embroidered patterns I was a big (YUGE) fan. The research that ensued enlightened me to some valuable info, summarized as follows: I was particularly fond of the skirt - so you can imagine my delight when I found Kate Veremchuk's Etsy store Smerichka (can't help but think she's lol-ing at us Shmericans). Her listing for the skirt advertised that it was totally customizable and only $150. Since I wasn't in the business (yet) of reinventing this color wheel, I sent her my measurements and a photo of a Vita Kin skirt for color choice inspo.

Bada bing, bada boom - about a month later, I can officially sit at the cool girls table with my skirt (pictured below) that cost me li-ter-a-lly 10% of what the lux brand costs, looks exactly the same, and is made by hand.

Kate's store isn't the only affordable option out there - here are some other Etsy shops that sell similar (and really beautiful) Ukrainian fashion: FashionFromUkraine, FashionbyJulia, UkrNational, and EmbroideredFantasy. I wore mine to the Rodeo yesterday - and felt like the real dealio. Here I am at the King Ranch Saddle Shop booth with Jerry Mejia, a craftsman whose been perfecting his skills for 13+ years. So while we're on the topic of how anything hecho-a-mano is that much more especial, I'll end the post with a shout out to Jerry. He makes saddles, leather sheathes, custom belts, and dabbles with floral and basket weave tooling - and his fingers got the battle wounds to prove it. Go check him out!