On Tuesday, a Moscow clothing store called Monochrome made an online post about changes to its working hours due to Russia’s upcoming Victory Day celebrations. The tone was sarcastic and frustrated, with the brand complaining that “no one cares about other people’s businesses.” The post quickly caught the attention of popular pro-war bloggers, and Internet users descended on the store’s social media pages to leave negative comments and reviews — ultimately pressuring Monochrome into issuing an apology. Here’s how the controversy unfolded.

Nikolai Bogdanovich, the director of the Russian clothing brand Monochrome, apologized on Wednesday for a post about the store’s adjusted operating hours for Moscow’s annual Victory Day parade this week.

The post that led to Bogdanovich’s apology was published on Monochrome’s Telegram channel on Tuesday. It featured an image stating that the Monochrome store on Stoleshnikov Lane would open at 2:00 p.m. instead of the usual 10:00 a.m. on May 7 and 9. The caption read, “Why? Right — because of the parade. Why? Right — because no one cares about other people’s businesses. No comment, as they say…”

The store's message sparked backlash in the comments, with users accusing Monochrome of disrespecting Victory Day and even of Russophobia. One commenter wrote: “This is a very strange statement, to be honest. I don’t think you’re new to these kinds of situations, having a store in the center [of Moscow]. In Russia, we have traditions we respect.” Monochrome replied: “I forgot to ask you. Thanks for your opinion.”

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Although the original post was soon deleted, screenshots continued to circulate on other Telegram channels, including a popular one run by pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. Another screenshot, this time from the personal Telegram channel of Alisa Bokha — Monochrome’s co-founder and Bogdanovich's wife — revealed that she had written the original post. “I honestly didn’t think my comment about the store closing would stir up so much negativity,” she wrote on Tuesday evening. “I’d really love to hear from those same people sending me nasty messages when their Internet gets cut off. I’d also love to hear from them when they’re stuck in traffic because the roads are closed.”

The post drew attention from pro-war bloggers, and negative reviews of Monochrome began appearing on platforms like VKontakte, Yandex, 2GIS, Otzovik, and even YouTube — under an interview Bokha gave in 2022 to fashion blogger Madonna Mur, where they discussed Victory Day and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The nationalist group Call of the People reported the brand to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Bokha’s personal Telegram channel appears to have been either deleted or hacked: its name was changed, all posts were removed, and the only remaining content is a photo of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.

By May 7, Monochrome had removed the offending post, and Bogdanovich issued an apology:

We made a colossal mistake — simply because, for the first time in our lives, we didn’t stop to think about what we were writing or how we were saying it. […] I sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize for the tone, delivery, format, and wording of the post that understandably caused a negative reaction.

What was meant to be a simple announcement about our store hours ended up being seen as disrespect toward Victory Day — a great holiday — which, of course, was never our intention and couldn’t be further from the truth.

As a business operating in this country and as part of its cultural fabric, we have always shown genuine respect — not just in words but in actions — for national, religious, and public holidays.

Monochrome is an oversized clothing brand that also sells shoes and home goods. It was founded in 2015 by Nikolai Bogdanovich. Initially launched as a “designer printing” label, the brand shifted its focus to fashion in 2016 after Bogdanovich met Bokha, a stylist. In December 2021, Monochrome opened a store on Stoleshnikov Lane. As the outlet Blueprint put it, “Monochrome marked the start of local fashion’s takeover of the street,” as Western brands pulled out of Russia amid sanctions and the war.

Today, Monochrome operates eight stores in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, and Vladivostok. The brand is known for its collaborations, having released collections with the Pantone Color Institute, Reebok, Aeroflot, and football club Spartak. It’s grown rapidly: according to Spark-Interfax, Monochrome’s revenue reached 1.9 billion rubles ($23.4 million) in 2024 — a 64 percent increase over the previous year — with net profit up 341 percent to 419 million rubles ($5.2 million).

Bogdanovich is from Moscow; Bokha is originally from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. In interviews, she's spoken about her parents’ divorce when she was in second grade and her subsequent move to Moscow with her mother. Her father and grandparents remained in Vinnytsia at the start of the war, though she later lost contact with them. In a June 2022 interview with Madonna Mur — now resurfacing because of the parade controversy — Bokha tearfully described the invasion as a shock for both her and her husband.

In that same conversation, they discussed a May 9, 2022 Instagram post from Monochrome that read, “Let there be peace.” Madonna Mur shared a screenshot of the post, calling it “an anti-war statement in a very soft form.” When asked why they posted it on Victory Day, Bokha said the date still meant something to them — a “bright holiday from the past.”

That post is no longer on Monochrome’s Instagram, but a screenshot remains on its Telegram channel, reposted from Tears Of, a menswear label also founded by Bogdanovich. The caption reads: “Today is the holiday of the Great Victory in a horrific war. If anyone out there has delusions of ‘doing it again,’ I genuinely pity them — but I won’t waste my time arguing.”