BBC Dragons’ Den: Ukrainian fashion designer Yana Smaglo of Nenya to pitch brand she launched in Yorkshire

Yana Smaglo, 32, will be seen pitching her fashion house Nenya - which means motherland - and hoping for support from dragons Steven Bartlett, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, who this season have been joined by guests dragons including beauty entrepreneur Trinny Woodall.

The series was filmed last year with the outcome a closely guarded secret until the episode airs.

Yana said: “It was fascinating meeting other applicants and a real atmosphere of entrepreneurialism throughout the filming. Actually going through the grilling from the Dragons is an experience like no other.”

Yana, originally from Kharkiv, was in Kyiv working on her new collection when, on February 24, 2022, she awoke to the sound of bombing as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. She packed a small bag and left, travelling through Poland and Germany, until she was invited by friends to stay in Huddersfield.

She decided to establish Nenya as a fashion distribution company and launched the fashion house later that year with the aim of helping fellow designers still living in Ukraine by supporting their businesses, their skills and their creativity, to enable them to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

She already had experience of working with large retail and wholesale teams, assisting companies with management systems for production houses. Following an article in the Yorkshire Post about her ambitions, she found offers of help and advice from local business people, who began supporting her with PR, retail and wholesale connections, advertising and design. She sourced stock and wholesale partners, and now also sells the clothes and accessories - including luxurious knitwear - via the website nenya.online, and has had pop-up shops at Victoria Gate Shopping Centre in Leeds, at Trinity Leeds, and in London.

Nenya now sells clothes wholesale in more than 120 countries including the USA, Canada and France, and has a turnover of £120,000.

Yana is accompanied in the Den by two of the team who helped her set up Nenya - PR manager Claire Strachan and project leader Antonia Kinlan, who says: “The determination and resilience shown by Yana is so inspiring. Having pulled together Yorkshire businesses to help to support Yana and launch the company, we had an amazing team creating her branding, PR, legal support, and business connections – all free of charge, purely to help Yana get on her feet.

“Combining Ukrainian fashion with true Yorkshire grit, we are proud of everything the team has achieved, and can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring.”

There are five brands in Nenya’s portfolio, all tracing their origins to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Yana, who has recently moved to London, says that the determination of these fashion designers and brands underlines their commitment to high-quality fashion, as well as to supporting communities and preserving Ukraine’s rich industrial heritage despite the conflict.

She has continued to return to Ukraine to source and support designers and businesses still living in the war zone.

Dragons’ Den is on BBC1 at 8pm on Thursdays. Yana will appear on January 23.