Pink ladies on the red carpet

This October, I would like to remind you of last year's Pink October: it was called "Fashion Week - Fashion Against Breast Cancer", and the Fashion Week was held on October 28, 2024, at the Capital Plaza in Podgorica. Thanks to Mr. Srđa Lubarda, the head of MNE Fashion Week, as well as the participation of the NGO Breathe with Maja Gardašević, ten heroines, women warriors, were honored to open a fashion week of humanitarian character and significance for the first time in our country and in the region at such an event.

This fight requires a lot of hope and courage, resistance is the strength not to break down in the face of a vicious disease but to emerge stronger from that fight. For some long reruns with an uncertain epilogue. There is something when you give the last atom of strength and when there is no surrender. Some sorrows cannot be translated into words. They are like a rock that falls on you and you have to live with that. How much strength do you need to overcome yourself and your pain. A little is endless. The only reward for all of us fighters from the company of the indomitable with a signature on the most expensive contract is - Life. It is our right to decide what to do with it.

Our backers in this fight are oncology doctors, teamwork, and family. Sometimes princesses of their father and mother, only during their lives, and after kilometers traveled through happy and thorny parts of life's journey, do many become princesses in their own right, waiting for them somewhere in the spotlight or a constellation, a better place... We are all women at heart, eternal little girls in our own world of fashion, glitter, makeup...

Everyone is beautiful in their own way, even when their hair is falling out. No foundation can cover up what chemotherapy does, it leaves a mark on the skin.

The day we celebrate our birthday is a reason for celebration, but the plague does its thing, you count the days until victory and to be yourself again, to shine. To be a woman and return to your original state, as much as possible.

We were given that opportunity last year. To bravely walk under the spotlight in fashion creations by our designers who donated their dresses for that memorable and respectful night. I wore a red lace dress that my late mother sewed for me in 2000. A tribute to her, a respect for every hour spent on the machine, just like the creators and sponsors spend and implement fashion releases. How much creativity and love is needed for all that!

Many sponsors prepared gifts for all of us, the atmosphere was wonderful. Slowly, the ten of us walked out onto the runway with dignity, courage and pride, with music, in the presence of guests, sponsors, families - applause of support. It means a lot, you look at the people around you, you see admiration in their eyes, maybe a dose of fear, because the plague does not choose. Enormous strength and a message that the unity of women is greatest precisely when it is most difficult. Everyone needs to understand that oncology patients are around you - every day, not just in October.

We have shown that we can and must continue, for us and for all those who are currently struggling. The Fashion Chamber does not have the support of institutions, so I hope that after last year's performance they will still turn around and realize that with support they can help a lot. All from a rosy story. Because someone's little means a lot to someone. You need to be empathetic and human, like Srđa Lubarda who went through the story with his dear mother until the last day. He made us feel alive that night, even though we are not models or angels with wings, but are just women with a soul and a desire for another sigh, a new day, because for all of us - Life is a gift.