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Fashion Week Sizzles in Skopje

This week (18-23 April), Macedonia plays host to the capital city’s Fashion Week 2004, which showcases the latest styles for the upcoming season. The offerings from Macedonian, regional and Western designers are of course being shown off by top local models.

The much-anticipated week of fashion began on Sunday evening at 8:30, with the ceremonies taking place at Skopje’s 5-star Aleksandar Palace Hotel. A large crowd gathered a half hour earlier, made up of Skopje’s trendy and beautiful youth, as well as actors, TV personalities, businessmen, and the glittering ranks of the capital’s wealthy.

The presenter of the show was Tanja Gruevska, a former Miss Macedonia, TV news presenter, and currently owner of a production house acquiring rights to reality TV shows for the Macedonian market. Tanja is the wife of famous Macedonian folk singer Blagoja Gruevski.

Sunday night was dedicated to the “Legend” design house from Subotica, in Vojvodina (northern Serbia), as well as the international designer “Gas.” The emphasis was on casual and sportswear wear, cotton t-shirts, shorts and jeans. However, there were some sexier looks to be seen in short tops, dresses, and skin-tight pants. Aside from the earth tones present in some of the sports wear, this season’s emphasis is on pinks, greens and yellows, seen often in both apparel and shoes displayed in Sunday night’s show.

Models made brisk jaunts under the bright white lights, strutting down the catwalk past VIPs and to the flash of cameras, accompanied by pulsating modern pop music. The show kicked off with Britney Spears‘ “Toxic” and also used other popular singles such as Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and thumping techno music too. The stage was flanked by two large video screens on either side, which showed large screen, Fashion TV-style images of the models but also during the intermission, odd video sequences of professional football and race cars apparently meant to appeal to the masculine preferences of the male members of the audience.

The show was organized by Miodrag Cajic, a veteran of the Macedonian fashion scene, with the help of corporate sponsors and Quorum models agency. In addition to Quorum, models during the show are being supplied by Mak Models, Vega, Visage, and Models In. The last is the only one to have a good web presence, and many details and photos can be found on their website. The company was founded in 2000 by “…the three leading names in the [Macedonian] fashion industry, Nadica Gorgieva, Alek Naumovski and Irina Dogandziska,” and boasts of its cooperation and contacts with world-famous modeling agency Look Model Management.

During Sunday’s opening, Ms. Gruevska announced that during these days many fashion designers from the Balkan countries, Greece, Sweden, Germany and Italy will have their work exhibited. Monday night’s show featured David Ivanovski, a Macedonian designer who now works in Rijeka.

Another Croatian offering came from Igor Galas operating out of Zagreb. Slovenian designers showcased on Monday included Matej Goljat and Shpela Saje, as well as Ilina Trchkova, all of whom work in Ljubljana.

Tuesday’s show was reserved for “Gallery Profocus” from Zagreb, “Blue Petrol” as well as in-demand designers from Belgrade.

Wednesday’s show promises to be one of the highlights of Fashion Week, featuring the exciting Ramiza Karovic from Sarajevo as well as designers from Thessaloniki’s “Trend” and “Vela” from Bologna, Italy, showing off their underwear and lingerie collections.

Fashion Week’s fifth night features well-known companies “Sasch” from Italy and “Quiksilver” from Australia, as well as another Bosnian designer, Andrijana Gavric from Sarajevo.

Finally, on Friday night spectators will be treated to fashion from Swedish, German and Italian designers, namely Alviero Martini. The closing presentation is reserved for Verica Rakocevic, the famous designer from Belgrade whose VR Company has an appropriately artistic website. A final end-of-show party is supposed to be broadcast on Fashion TV (though Ben Stiller probably won’t make an appearance to reprise his famous “Blue Steel” look).

Sponsors of the Skopje Fashion Week included Adidas, Macedonian bottled water company InAqva, Stopanska Bank, Celine Dion Parfums, Tinex Supermarkets, as well as various Skopje hotels, cafйs, newspapers, radio stations and beauty salons.