How Moscow Fashion Week Keeps Emerging Talent At The Forefront

Though fashion may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Russia's sprawling capital city of Moscow, art enthusiasts know that the city is also a hub for culture. The curious traveler would also be pleasantly surprised to find that Moscow is the largest fashion and culture metropolis in Europe and has been hosting its own fashion week for just shy of 20 years.

For president of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia, Alexander Shumsky, helming one of the city's biggest cultural institutions comes from necessity. As the founder of the leading public relations agency for luxury fashion and lifestyle, Artefact Communications, Shumsky has spent decades supporting over 500 emerging brands and designers in the once-underrepresented Russian market. "I got a lot of requests from designers and brands that were demanding a professional event, " Shumsky says. "We created fashion week specifically for our clients, which consisted of 10 to 12 designers and so we launched in Moscow in 1996.” Also serving as president of the Russian Fashion Council, the former journalist and public relations professional has mobilized a community of artists and set the bar in Eastern Europe.

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Expanding in scale since it's debut in the year 2000, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia  saw 60,000 visitors over the course of five days and showcased 117 designers from 14 countries represented on the runways. Having moved around various venues throughout the years, the Central Manege is home to the fashion week festivities that have been diversified to include live talks, panels, performances and a marketplace made of pop-up shops for attendees.

In addition to the tens of thousands of guests over the week-long event, the show's largest viewership comes from the streaming live across over 50 broadcasting sites. Of the ever-widening audience fashion week attracts, Shumsky notes that, "before, the designers would approach [him] to do shows in order to attract more buyers but today it's about media content.” By fostering a dynamic, multi-media backdrop for shows to take place, the event's founder keeps on top of engagement trends and emphasizes access as a main component of what makes the shows in Moscow special. "Thanks to our sponsors, we have Global Talents that are supporting by inviting different designers from different cultures. It's not famous designers either. For a lot of them, it's their first show ever and they are young, hip  designers. The demand for something new is very high and it's quite entertaining and comfortable to stay here,” Shumsky says.

Remapping Fashion PR: How One Agency Is Changing The Rules

Every rulebook is made to be rewritten. The art of getting people to know about someone or something (marketing and public relations) has its history of change. Usually, pioneers become stars in their own right: David “the father of advertising” Ogilvy, David Axelrod as Barack Obama’s media campaigner or Harvey Levin for TMZ and celebrity reporting. Fashion PR today is synonymous with Karla Otto whose agency redefined the industry since launching in 1982. The rise of e-commerce, social media and globalization has created new opportunities for fashion talent and extra challenges for fashion PR. I met with Christian Daccache, founder of Bureau Des Créateurs, to find out how the next generation sees its role in remapping fashion, what does emerging mean in the age of Insta-everything and why meditation is a solid business practice.

It is a combination of serendipity and passion. In 2017, I took an invitation to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Georgia. I was so overwhelmed with the amount of raw talent I saw there. I had not really heard of Lado Bokuchava, Dalood, Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili or Tbilisi itself before. I came back inspired and wondered how many other people don’t know about the cool culture of Tbilisi or Beirut?! I saw everything with fresh eyes and recognized this similarity. It made sense to me to bring these places together under one roof. Now I represent Georgian, Lebanese and Jordanian talent. We started with fashion designers and now continue to add musicians, artists, photographers, and maybe chefs, athletes, authors next. It is a new creative map of the region for a different kind of diplomacy.

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The Best New Hotels For A Greek Island Getaway

If I could snap my fingers and suddenly appear anywhere in the world this summer, it would be in Santorini. One of the most Instagram photographed locations; the tiny Santorini Islands are also among the most romantic on the planet. All it takes is one dramatic sunset experience, and you are hooked. Sitting on your hotel terrace and looking at the steep cascading cliffs of whitewashed hotels and apartments seemingly stacked on top of each other is really a miracle in architecture.

The areas of Fira, Imerovigli, and Oia all have stunning hotels with terraces and infinity pools and are among the prime spots for stunning Caldera views. Of course, hotels in this area are among the most expensive and sought after during high season. On a recent visit to Santorini, I personally experienced many of the new hotel properties for my selection of the very best for 2019.

Among my top picks in Santorini is the brand new Canaves Oia Epitome. Located on the northern part of the busy island is this hidden and very exclusive all-villa property. Positioned above the picturesque fishing town of Ammoudi, these stunning villas are quickly becoming the ultimate celebrity escape.

The Canaves brand is among the most popular in Greece after Ioannis and Anna Chaidemenos transformed 17th-century wine caves dug from the volcanic rocks into luxury hotel rooms. This led to the birth of their first hotel, Canaves Oia Hotel. In 2010, Markos Chaidemenos and his brother, Alexandros, took over the brand.

Early Child education, key to childhood development

Lively Minds, an NGO with a focus on ensuring that rural pre-school children develop the requisite intellect they need to thrive in school, has called on mothers to prioritize early childhood education.

This, according the NGO, was a crucial stage for human development.

Madam Alison Naftalin, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lively Minds who made the call at a Childhood Care and Education Dissemination programme, said mothers played key roles in the developmental process of their children, since 76 percent of a child's life was spent at home.

She said, the NGO was collaborating with the Ghana Education Service (GES), to enlighten mothers on health, nutrition and child safety issues among others, by running a monthly course for them to unlock the power of parents in rural areas, to impact the progress of their children.

Madam Naftalin, said there was the need to unearth promising paths to improve children's development.
She noted a research conducted by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Innovation for Poverty Action Plan (IPA) Ghana had proven that the training programme had impacted significantly on the cognitive development and health in children, using a randomized evaluation among 80 rural schools.

"Half of these schools were randomly assigned to receive training and support from Lively Minds" she said.

The CEO said the findings suggested that the hybrid early childhood development programmes that simultaneously targeted homes and pre-school environments through parents, was a cost-effective way to improve early child education.

She said that the programme had impacted mothers positively, and had improved their self-esteem and risk of depression as they became more concerned about theirs wards education.
Mothers now pay regular visits to their ward's schools and interact with their teachers to know the progress of their children.

She commended the government for achievements made in the pre-primary education sector and the introduction of the Kindergarten system and a
Curriculum in line with evidence-based teaching practices required for the child.

Two reports endorse investment in early childhood education

A pair of reports released this week offered supporting arguments for one of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s top priorities: increasing investment in early childhood education.

Both reports, one by a group of law enforcement officials and another by leading business executives, use data from the Illinois State Department of Education that shows roughly three-fourths of all students entering kindergarten in Illinois lack necessary school readiness skills in at least one of three critical areas – social-emotional development, literacy or math. Only about a quarter of all new kindergarteners demonstrate school readiness in all three categories.

Because of that, the reports argue, many of those children fall behind in their early elementary years and have difficulty throughout their school careers, leading to a wide range of social problems, including a lack of workforce skills and a higher propensity to get involved with crime later in life.

"Research has shown that high-quality early childhood education can result in more successful outcomes, particularly for at-risk children from low-income families," wrote the authors of the first report, "Illinois’ Path to Prosperity."

That report, written by a group of law enforcement officials known as "Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois," suggests children enrolled in quality preschool and child development programs are more likely to complete high school and significantly less likely to be arrested for violent crimes after they become adults.

"Illinois spends $2.3 billion each year to house adults in prisons and jails, and experiences violent crime at rates 15 percent more than the national average," the organization said. "One solution we have to combat this epidemic is investing in our youngest residents: research shows that children who participate in high-quality early childhood programs are more likely to succeed in school and less likely to commit crime later down the line."

The second report, released Wednesday by a group of business executives called ReadyNation, argues early childhood education is an important component of workforce development because it lays the foundation for the kinds of "soft skills" like social and emotional development that are critical for success later in life.


"If not addressed and resolved, these school-readiness issues can easily turn into workforce-readiness issues that – down the road – are very literally bad for business," Jeff Griffin, president of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, said during a news conference in that city where the report was unveiled.

Both organizations are part of the same national umbrella organization called the Council for a Strong America, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that advocates for workforce development programs. And both reports came out less than a week before Illinois lawmakers return from their spring break to begin the final stretch of the 2019 regular session.

Parents held without bail after baby ingests fentanyl

The parents of a 1-year-old girl are being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing after the baby was rushed to the hospital for fentanyl exposure.

The baby is expected to live and recover fully. Fentanyl is a man-made opioid responsible for numerous overdose deaths across the region and the nation.

It is the second time in recent months that a local child has been hospitalized for exposure to fentanyl. Precious Wallaces, 11, of Haverhill, died a few days after exposure to fentanyl on Dec. 15.

"The magnitude of the opioid crisis rises to a whole new level anytime children are involved," Lawrence Police Chief Roy Vasque said in a statement. "It becomes even more alarming when it involves an infant as in this case. This is not a local or even a Commonwealth of Massachusetts issue, but rather the largest epidemic of its kind the country is facing. As a result there needs to be a comprehensive nationwide plan in the area of enforcement, education, and rehabilitation."

The baby girl was taken to Lawrence General Hospital on Monday after her mother found her with a pill in her mouth. Her mother took her to the hospital, where she was admitted after testing detected the presence of fentanyl.

At their arraignment Tuesday morning, parents McDanner Pereyra and Jennifer Ouch, both 27 and from Lawrence, were ordered held until a dangerousness hearing Feb. 26. If that hearing determines they are a danger to society, they will continue to be held without bail.

Police said Ouch lied to them by saying the girl found a pill on the floor of a store and put it in her mouth.

The girl's 6-year-old brother told officers she actually picked up the pill at their home and put it in her mouth, according to a police report on file at Lawrence District Court.

Pereyra later admitted that he told Ouch, who is his girlfriend, to lie and say the pill came from the store, according to the police report. Pereyra said he told her to lie because he feared the state might take their children away, according to the report.

When Ouch noticed the pill in her mouth, she removed it and washed the child's mouth out with water, according to a statement made by the girl's brother to police. Pereyra told Ouch to take the girl to the hospital, where medical personnel determined she had fentanyl in her system, but that she would make a full recovery, the report said.

When executing the search warrant, police discovered a variety of illegal narcotics and ammunition, for which a license to carry a firearm or FID card is required, Cuddy said.

According to the police report on file at Lawrence District Court, police searching the home found a plastic bag containing what appeared to be 32.1 grams of fentanyl. The bag was on top of the kitchen cabinets, the report said. Police found another bag of what appeared to be 11.8 grams of fentanyl in a bag in the kitchen pantry, the report said.

The report said officers also found other items in the home: In the parent's bedroom closet was a zip lock bag containing 17 promethazine hydrochloride tablets. Promethazine is an anti-allergy medication that can cause drowsiness. Also in the closet were two Xanax bars and half a Xanax bar. Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication. A bar is a tablet that has been scored by the manufacturer to be broken easily into smaller doses.

Police said the Pereyra denied ownership of all the ammunition and the gun box, saying it belongs to a friend. He also denied owning a gun, according to the police report. The report indicated he said the bag of powder in the pantry wasn't his and that he doesn't believe it is drugs, and also that he denied dealing any drugs other than marijuana.

Precious died several days later at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where she had been in a coma and on life support.

Autopsy testing of the girl's body revealed the presence of fentanyl and amitriptyline, a sleeping medication.

The girl's uncle, Miguel Rivera, 58, of 233 Jackson St., #5, was charged in January with permitting bodily injury to a child and misleading a police investigation in connection with Precious' death. Rivera was also charged with rape of a child.

Family welcomes first baby of 2019

Lindsey and Ben Thigpen smiled proudly as their new bundle of joy slept peacefully in her mother's arms Tuesday afternoon.

Hadley Jean, the first baby born at Altru hospital in 2019, weighs 6 pounds 9 ounces and is 21 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Collette Lessard at 1 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 1, just missing 2018 by an hour.


Lindsey said she and her husband joked about the baby coming on New Year's Eve, but once that hour passed she didn't even think about Hadley being the first baby of 2019.

"We had joked about her being born in 2018 and getting the tax break, we missed that by an hour," Ben said with a laugh.

Hadley Jean was originally set to arrive about a week later, on Jan. 8, Lindsey said.

The couple also has a one and-half-year-old son named Westley, who was proudly sporting a "big brother" T-shirt and smiling as he pointed at his baby sister saying "baby" nearly every time he looked at her.

"We're just very happy that she's finally here and that we finally get to hold her," Lindsey said.