A Ukrainian dressmaker and his family find refuge and a new beginning in Vestavia Hills
Mykola Vyshyvanyuk looks on as Ashlee Gootee, owner of Something You Couture, works on a floral piece on March 13, 2023 in Vestavia Hills, AL. Vyshyvanyuk, a skilled seamster, recently immigrated from Ukraine and has been working in Gootee’s shop.
At a dress shop in downtown Birmingham, Mykola Vyshyvanyuk sits at a sewing machine, eyebrows pulled down in a deep frown of concentration as he squints through his glasses at tiny stitches.
“I make now alterations for this prom dress,” Vyshyvanyuk said, holding up a satin gown.
Ashley Gootee, owner and head designer of Something You Couture, describes Mykola’s work in one word.
“Perfect,” Gootee said. “He’s very skilled. He’s a very skilled patterner and can look at something and know exactly what to do.”
That skill comes from decades of running his own dress shop in Lviv, Ukraine.
Now, with a lot of help from Google Translate, Vyshyvanyuk has settled into Gootee’s shop, and the two of them have been able to communicate despite a language barrier and different sewing styles. It has been a learning experience for both, and along the way, Vyshyvanyuk has been able to make himself feel right at home.
“It’s very nice team, and Ashley, it’s very nice atmosphere,” he said.
Vyshyvanyuk said the peace and tranquility have been a welcome change. Because this time last year, Vyshyvanyuk and his wife, Olena, were sewing tactical gear for the Ukrainian army.
Back in Ukraine, the Vyshyvanyuks lived in what Olena calls their dream home with their three young daughters: 13-year-old Eva, 11-year-old Ioanna and 6-year-old Viktoriia. She sighs and tears up when she describes it.
“It was big enough, because we are a big family, and each kid had their own room,” she said. “We had a big table. We could gather all of the family and the parents together at one table. It was my big dream all my life.”
Olena Vyshyvanyuk describes the home she left behind in Lviv when she and her family emigrated to Ukraine on March 10, 2023, at her home in Vestavia Hills, AL. (Rashah McChensey/Gulf States Newsroom)
She said they also had great neighbors, with kids the same age.
“Our house was always full of kids. So, if someone new comes they always asked, ‘How many kids do you have?!’,” Olena said, laughing. “I just hope it will be there one day.”
The Vyshyvanyuks planned on staying in Ukraine forever. But the war upended their lives, along with the lives of millions of other Ukrainians.
Russia has had troops in Ukraine since 2014 after it illegally annexed Crimea. However, this conflict has been largely confined to the eastern part of the country. Lviv is in western Ukraine, near the border with Poland.
Olena said she couldn’t believe it when Russia launched a full-on invasion in February 2022.
“It was such a big shock the first day,” she said. “And I know that all people were saying that war was going to start. But how can you believe that someone like your neighbor or your brother will attack this day?”
And this time, war was knocking on her front door; she could hear explosions.
Hundreds of thousands of people left their homes and fled to neighboring countries. The couple sent their daughters to live with their grandparents in Poland for their safety, while they stayed behind.
In a skilled feat of reverse engineering, Mykola learned how to make tactical vests by taking one apart, noting its construction, and modeling a design based on his findings.
“We started helping them because the very first months, it was too difficult,” Olena said. “The soldiers had nothing. We weren’t ready for this war.”
