When Ukrainian designer Victor Anisimov showed Volodimir Zelenski a new black suit last Friday, there was a small detail. An opening at the back, which brought it closer to a political suit, compared to the military uniforms the president prefers throughout the war in Ukraine.

“These are our hopes for peace,” Anisimov told Reuters for the modification. “We thought that if we added something discreet to this image, something from political clothing to his uniform, then it would be like a lucky charm.”

On Monday, the “charm” worked to create a warm atmosphere at the White House meeting with US President Donald Trump. A few minutes after Zelenski’s arrival, Trump congratulated him for his suit.

Zelenski’s dark military clothing was one of the things Trump had criticized during a tense meeting at the Oval Office in February, when the Ukrainian leader had received a public reprimand.

Anisimov, 61, from the northern region of Chernichiv, said he was watching videos of that meeting and felt the “blows”. He took them as spikes against Ukrainian citizens, not just Zelenski.

“There was a slight sense of despair, because they don’t understand how we breathe, how we live,” he said.

A journalist in the White House, who in February had asked Zelenski why he was not wearing a suit, praised him on Monday for his appearance, saying: “You look amazing in this suit.”

Anisimov said that this time he was expecting neither criticism nor praise, but wanted to ensure that the Ukrainian president would seem decent.

“Sometimes they praise you, sometimes they fight you. If we win, and we will win, then it won’t matter who the suit was, “he said.

Zelenski wore military clothing, often with shirts without collar and heavy boots, to show solidarity with the Ukrainian troops after Russia’s full -scale invasion in February 2022.

“At this time, internally, we all changed, everything changed, life has changed. It was a point without a return, “Zelenski said in an interview with a Ukrainian medium a year later.

The black suit on Monday was initially presented, along with an identical navy version, as a proposal for Ukraine’s independence on August 24.

While the team was discussing the details of tearing on the back, Anisimov took it back for corrections on Friday. Before making the changes to the sleeves, the phone rang with an urgent request from the Presidential Administration on Saturday, the president needed the costume for his trip to the US.

It was not the first time that Anisimov had undertaken to change the president’s style.

In the early 2000s, then comedian Volodimir Zelenski and his Kvartal 95 team tried to consolidate their presence on Ukrainian screens after their first success in comedy competitions.

The process was gradual: Black t-shirts gave way to white tie shirts and then in suits, which the team wore during the performances.

Anisimov said he had to hear from Zelenski for more than five years, when a commoner known from the previous “Transfiguration” approached him in January. Then the idea was to create a Capsule collection for the president.

Anisimov said that he was inspired by the military uniform in order to ensure the functionality and flexibility of all pieces of the collection.

“I can’t say that we sewed (a suit) especially for the NATO summit or for an important discussion with Trump and European leaders. The suit is just a suit, “he said, adding that Zelenski has about five jackets that look like small differences.

Since then, the Ukrainian president has worn Anisimov’s creations at the funeral of Pope Francis in April and at the NATO summit in June, two circumstances that helped to get the US and Ukraine closer after February’s public rupture.