The new project will tell the stories of seven successful business representatives: Inna Katyushchenko (President of Edipresse Media Ukraine, Creative Brand Manager Couture de Fleur, founder of the charity fund Единственная), Elena Podtopta (CEO of Helena SAI brand, the owner of a private kindergarten Smileup Nature's Montessori school), Elizaveta Yurusheva (manager of the Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv, boutique hotel "Riviera" and founder of the charity fund "Choose the future together"), Tatiana Bondarchuk (founder of a healthy food company Eat Easy), Natalia Tarchenko (founder of the international educational agency DEC Education), Natalia Nevyadomskaya (managing partner and owner of the restaurant chain Famille Très Français), and Snezhana Babkina (producer, director of musician Sergei Babkin).
In a series of exclusive interviews and photo sessions on beauty.ua, the women talk about femininity, professional accomplishments, beauty, and the secrets of being businesswomen, mothers, and wives at the same time.
A quiet charity auction marked the end of the fashion show held on April 16 in Kyiv. Among the lots were the Couture de Fleur dresses, the Helena SAI brand jewelry and photo portraits of the Women Power project participants. The proceeds from the auction will be used to support Step Up — a social and educational program for adolescent girls from foster homes. The program will be launched this summer by the Unity Foundation. The key task of the Step Up program is to teach girls to build harmonious and loving relationships with others, create cohesive families, raise children in full-fledged relationships, and motivate them to make positive changes in their lives.
The guests of the event were the heroines of the project, public figures, customers of Lexus Kyiv West, Couture de Fleur, Helena SAI, media representatives, as well as celebrity guests: Ekaterina Kukhar and Alexander Stoyanov, Natalia Holodenco, Paul Manandiz, Taras Topola, Anastasia Daugule. Roman Mihno was the host of the evening, and DJ STARKOV provided the event with DJ sets.
Inna Katyushchenko, President of Edipresse Media Ukraine, Creative Brand Manager Couture de Fleur, founder of the charity fund Единственная: "This project tells about women and is created for women. We want to create an atmosphere of beauty, spring, show the depth of our heroines, and also help the young girls who face a difficult choice to find their own way in life."
Elena Podtopta, CEO of Helena SAI brand, the owner of a private kindergarten Smileup Nature's Montessori school: "While searching for a balance between family and work, we explore ourselves, our femininity, and discover the very own understanding of this state. Therefore, we dedicated our project to those women whose personal experience inspires and gives young girls the opportunity to take a step forward towards self-realization and success."
Olga Bodnar, Editor-in-Chief of beauty.ua: "Women can do everything and even a little more! I realized that when we were preparing the spring project Women Power: 7 business stories with Female Soul. Each of the heroines became a source of inspiration and motivated to act, take risks, make difficult decisions, live life to its fullest, be here and now, but at the same time wisely think of the next steps. Regardless of activity kind and age, each of them combines femininity, the strength of spirit, and fragility. How? Well, this is exactly what our unique special project is about!"
Yuliya Mikhailova, director of Единственная charity fund: "The Step Up project is very important for our country, because women make a priceless contribution to the development of all areas, and provide the well-being of the future of Ukraine. Girls brought up in boarding schools don’t have a positive example of a loving mother and a successful woman, they don’t learn how to build long-term relationships, don’t develop and don’t know how to achieve their goals. In the Step Up project, adolescent girls will learn to communicate with their peers, resolve conflicts, take care of themselves and their appearance, lead a healthy lifestyle, plan and fill their lives to the fullest."
Photos provided by the Women Power project.
