"Tailored and Made from the Heart": Exhibition of the Multiple Sclerosis Association opened at the KIC "Budo Tomović" in Podgorica

Jewelry, men's and women's shirts, belts, armlets – the items are tailored and made from the heart. This process must be experienced and seen, and only then can we talk about the way it is tied.

With these words, Andrijana Nikolić, president of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of Montenegro, opened an exhibition of handmade women's and men's shirts at the KIC "Budo Tomović" in Podgorica.

"Everything you see today started last year in June. In seven to eight months, we managed to export about 23 shirts - women's and men's," said Nikolić.

The exhibition of shirts, embroidered by the women of the Association, Nikolić explained, represents the ceremonial culmination of "everything they intended to do over the past year."

"The novelty of this exhibition is precisely the men's shirts, which we designed to be worn on formal occasions, but can also be worn in some relaxed variations."

In addition to shirts, visitors could also see jewelry and belts. Nikolić stated that such activities represent "a form of socialization."

"As well as a form of psychological support, because when you are together and when you work together, you create, you rejoice... It is essentially a process of returning to yourself. It is also about accepting yourself and getting to know your capabilities that you may not have known you had."

The process of preparing for the exhibition, she says, is essentially an embroidery process. She said that women's shirts take longer to embroider than men's.

"I will tell you that for one shirt, a women's shirt, if we also do this part around the sleeves, we are talking about two meters of embroidery. First, it is embroidered on the panama, and then the panama is later sewn onto the tailored shirt.. So for one women's shirt it takes a few days. When it comes to a men's shirt, it takes much less time, because we made it to be wearable in everyday situations, without many decorations. For one men's shirt, it is necessary to allocate approximately four to five hours," said Nikolić.

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of Montenegro is a non-profit, non-political non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 2007 with the aim of improving the quality of life of those suffering from this and related diseases.