SPECIAL REPORT: Serbia Fashion Week Continues Spectacular Rise

May 11, 2015

Photos Courtesy of Serbia Fashion Week (Ristic M., Drazen Zigic)

Paris, France – From April 21 – 26, the Serbia Fashion Week (SFW) planning committee organized its third official edition. This season proved to be the biggest yet, as it met with continued and unparalleled growth and success.

Antonio Simoes (far left) and Svetlana Horvat, SFW President (3rd right)

Over the 6-days period more than 22,000 visitors attended 43 fashion shows organized with the participation of 50 designers, showrooms, educational conferences, roundtable talks and additional events open to the public.

Luxury communications specialist Philippe Angelotti; Patrick Lafray, Director of the ESMOD fashion school in Paris and the French street style photographer Nabile Quenum of Jaiperdumaveste.com attended as special guests this season.

A former global communications manager for such houses as Emmanuel Ungaro, Zuhair Murad, Carven and Jean-Louis Scherrer, Mr. Angelotti also participated in a three hour long roundtable talk in which he offered invaluable advice to Serbian designers for furthering their brand success. And Quenum, who shoots for top international fashion publications such as Vogue USA, GQ France, Style.com, L’Officiel Italia, Elle Magazine, Instyle Germany, Vogue China, Harper’s Bazaar China, etc. also gave a lecture to aspiring photographers.

Portuguese menswear fashion house, Dielmar, participated as guest of honor. The house celebrated its 50^th year anniversary with a special show with 50 male models each wearing one of 50 outfits.

Other foreign guests included Mi-Ro (Greece), Eymeric François (France), Fabric Fancy (Russia), Andrea Lazzari (Italy), Amela Radan (Bosnia), etc. They hit the catwalk with some of the SFW most prominent market names including Marija Sabic, Bata Spasojevic, Danijela Bozic, Marina Micanovic, Milena Radovic, Mladen Milivojevic and Bosko Jankovljevic.

“This season was our most challenging and most exciting one yet”, stated Mrs. Svetlana Horvat, founder & president of the Serbia Fashion Week. “We are very happy because everyone now sees the importance of this festival. They are rapidly growing accustomed to and very comfortable in the knowledge that the SFW is now playing an important role in the growth of the local, regional and national economy.”

Mrs. Horvat also commented, “We are all honored that it is becoming an important mechanism for helping the world discover the beautiful talents of our fashion sector and energy of the young people of our country.”

After the big four fashion weeks end with the showing of collections in Paris, it is extremely difficult for any fashion that follows to attract major international fashion press titles. Thanks to an aggressive campaign, the SFW gathered an impressive list of guest foreign press. Those traveling to Novi Sad for the fashion week included representatives and journalists from Vogue (Italy), GQ (Italy), Madame Figaro (Greece), GXTV (China), Fashion Insider (USA), Harper’s Bazaar (Serbia), La Repubblica (Italy), Fashion One TV (Hong Kong), El Shakira (Saudi Arabia), MF FASHION (Italy), LASH Magazine (France), Fashion Channel (Italy), InStyle Magazine (Hungary), etc.

Marcellous L. Jones, Vice-President for International Development at the Serbia Fashion Week and who oversees foreign press and partnerships with the SFW, declared “The SFW has always benefitted from truly amazing support from abroad. We have always reached out to and have been successful in recruiting major international actors to help us tell the new story of Serbia’s fashion, manufacturing and production sectors. And now everyone can see the benefits. This is not only good for our fashion week. But it is wonderful for all of Serbia. And Mrs. Horvat, sponsors, the team and I we cannot be more proud.”

The SFW has also experienced a rise in premium sponsoring and partnerships. This season saw Philip Morris brand Malboro and champagne Piper & Heidsieck joined previous partners Unitech Haircare, Inglot Cosmetics, Minaqua, Tiki, Sokace and OhLaLa Shoes.

On the developing partnerships, Mrs. Horvat stated, “We want to thank the many local partners who have supported this festival from the very beginning. Our success is measured through our dedication to growing with our partners, to providing value to their companies and to sharing our fashion vision with their brands/products. And I especially thank those from the touristic segments including the city of Novi Sad, our hotel partners, restaurants and tour guides.”