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By Ed Avis
Lena Khacherashvili remembers well when Russia rolled into Crimea, which is in southern Ukraine, in 2014. Her husband, Ruslan, owned a souvenir business in Crimea and lost it all after the invasion.
“We saw all that happened, and I was so afraid, what should we do now? Where should we go? Because it was so dangerous to stay in our city,” Lena says. “And in a couple of months we realized that I won a green card and that's why we moved to the United States. We just had to start everything from the beginning here in the United States.”
Lena and her family moved to Florida. The green card allowed her to work legally in the United States, but she also wanted to help her fellow Ukrainians who remained in that country, so she started a business importing Ukrainian products. One of the most successful lines was from a company called UGearsUSA, which made wooden mechanical models for teens and adults.
“They became rather famous among people who liked to assemble such models,” Lena says.
That import business succeeded until Russia invaded Ukraine more heavily in 2022. Some of the factories producing the products they were importing were destroyed in the war, and others were seriously disrupted.
But being good entrepreneurs, Lena and her husband decided to start a business making another line of products: Halloween and party costumes and apparel.
How did they choose that category of product?
“We realized how important Halloween is for Americans,” she says. “Halloween was not so important in our country, but in America it's such a huge market.”
The company they now run is called Art of Trading, and their retail brand is called Kate Princess Dress. The high-quality costumes and dresses are made in Ukraine in a factory that is managed by their partner, Ludmyla Malakey, in a city in the west part of the country that is currently safe from the war. Malakey not only manages production, but she also designs the products, Lena explains. (See examples of their products above.)
Art of Trading retails the costumes and dresses in the United States on their website, Kate Party (https://kateparty.com/). They started with mermaid dresses for girls, which took off more quickly than they expected. They now have 81 SKUs of costumes and dresses produced in the Ukraine. They also retail products from Fun World, Trick or Treat Studios, Western Fashion and several other manufacturers.
Because they are a retail company, they joined the NCA as a Buyer Member. However, they now would like to expand the distribution of their own products and find other NCA Buyer Members who want to carry them.
“I have never sold these dresses for wholesale before -- we just sold them on our website or in a small brick and mortar store,” Lena explains. “But now I want to try it. We have so many good reviews and people call and write us how kids or how adults are happy with our dresses. I really love them and I believe in the success of these products and I just want to spread information about our brand and try to find partners.”
NCA Buyer members interested purchasing dresses or costumes wholesale from Art of Trading can fill out a form at https://kateparty.com/pages/wholesale
We welcome Lena to the NCA and wish her success!