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Barack Obama: Balkan Fashion Icon

November 17, 2008 8:35 AM

By DRAGANA JOVANOVIC, Producer, ABC News Belgrade

Suits and gloves were not uppermost on Barack Obama's agenda as he campaigned under the slogans of "Change" and "Yes we can," but in the Balkans the U.S. president-elect is inspiring sartorial excitement on a scale not seen since the election of John F. Kennedy ushered in the "Camelot" White House.

Evica Milovanov-Penezic, a Belgrade-based designer of fine gloves and accessories, first gained international attention when Kate Middleton wore a pair of her gloves at  Prince William's "Passing-Out" parade at Sandhurst Military Academy in 2006. Now she has dedicated her 2009 menswear collection to Obama.   

"My gloves are designed for relaxed men who do not need to flex muscle to show they have power," she said at her cozy atelier in Nusiceva, a fashionable street of the city, where customers can choose from a range of fine hand-sewn leather gloves. "I like people like Obama who want to change the status quo," said 31-year-old economist Bane Ilic as he tried on an elegant pair of blue sheepskin driving gloves. 

In neighboring Bosnia and Croatia, a line of single-breasted suits branded Borac Obama are flying off the rails.

Ahmed Curcic is one of the managers of the prestigious clothing concern coincidentally named Borac from the central Bosnian town of Travnik. Curcic said, "We were struggling for a while to find something new but now Obama is a new inspiration. It was not for the selling power, it was because he can carry the suit well and he has such a positive smile, something you need to see when all other news are just indexes falling."

"In [the] Obama line we changed everything we wanted to change from our previous collections. He also wants to change everything in the world and fashion is all about change."

Was the Bush collection ever a possibility? "No! No! All our ranges begin with O so neither Bush nor Osama are an option."

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