One of the Strongest Chambers is Located in the Center of Prague

Eva Primus Kovandová has been working for five years as the director of the office of the Board of Directors of the Prague 1 Chamber of Commerce, where she commutes daily by train from Klánovice. She lives there with her husband and raises their two daughters. In addition, she manages to take care of the accommodation that she rents. She is still able to save time for her big hobby, literally, because it is a horse. Therefore, finding time for an interview was not easy, but fortunately we succeeded.

A successful person is someone who feels happiness and fulfillment in their work, in their family, and in their spiritual life, which each of us defines differently. Lilia Khousnoutdinova and Karel Janeček are certainly a successful couple. Their union rests on full trust and mutual support. At the same time, each of them is individual and brilliant in their own way, each does what they love, each has their own projects, ideas and plans, but together they are working on the most successful project of their lives called the family.

Engineer-inventor, Doctor of Philosophy of Natural Medicine, entrepreneur, president of the international company Diacom Technology, author of patents and research articles, owner of the international trademark Diacom and of many others, president of the American football club Knights of Diacom.
He was the first in Russia to receive the status of “Trade and Exhibition Complex” as a commercial company.
He was given the state award of the Russian Federation “In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow”.
Khachatur Davidovich Mkrtchyan – engineer of radio electronics, computer technologies and electronic systems, inventor, author of the development of the cyclotron control system at the Yerevan Institute of Physics named after A. I. Alikhanyan, owner of the patent for “Method of recording oscillations of low-current electromagnetic fields” (can be used for early diagnosis of diseases at the cellular level), and of the patent for “System of controlled modulation of light radiation in the infrared and ultraviolet range through a gas-filled tube designed for therapeutic purposes” (can be an alternative in the treatment
of coronavirus infection, which led to a global pandemic).

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If you expect acclaimed opera singer and multi-genre singer Markéta Fassati to be a spoiled diva, you will be pleasantly surprised. The young talented artist, who was born in an important family of musicians, can only amaze her audience and let them admire her for her beautiful voice and art.
In addition to singing, she also invents and implements projects that take the music that is her mission to a whole new level.

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Hermine Khalaf Pogosyan’s work includes perhaps everything that can be at least partially sewn on a sewing machine. She is continuously seeking to elevate her work to the next level, mainly through attention to detail and high standards in her quality of work. To showcase her craft to the world, she decided to specialize in women’s costumes, jackets and coats where every detail counts. Her clientele quickly started to take notice of the difference in quality between Hermine’s sewing and the commonly accepted standards, thus the portfolio was expanded to include dresses and gowns. Among that which is usually invisible to the layman’s eye is the technique and quality of the sewing and style with which decorations are created. Imagine discovering all of the above for yourself after your first visit to the new Hermine Khalaf Pogosyan studio.

Your name suggests that you are not from the Czech Republic, where do you come from?
I was born in Armenia but my parents moved to the Czech Republic when I was 5 years old.

When did you realize you wanted to become a fashion designer?
In my childhood, in fact. My parents always pushed me to study and acquire different types of skills, but one topic in particular was omnipresent regardless of where I was – garments. Sewing and knitting is something of a ubiquitous craft in Armenia. My grandmother from my mother’s side loves to knit and has been doing so for as long as I can remember. She does it so seamlessly and beautifully that I was always amazed by the types of things she would knit for us. My auntie can weave the most complex patterns with the same grace, creating the most astonishing tablecloths.
My mother would regularly sew new clothes for us and herself when she had the time. This craft holds a very dear place in my heart; whenever I sew I carry this legacy on and try to make my family proud. Also, when growing up, I was exposed to all types of fine arts from rigorous painting lessons to studying competition-level piano playing. So when facing whether to study fashion design or something else entirely, it was kind
of a no-brainer for me.

So you attended design school?
Yes, I studied at the design school in Holešovice in Prague, the Czech Republic. The truth is that I did not finish my studies there.

Why?
Czechia’s education system is very outdated. I realized early on at the said school that I have a very different approach to how sewing and design should be taught and as soon as I came to this conclusion I took the necessary steps in the right direction. This was when they gave us a list of fashi-on chains where we could do our internships as shop assistants. Basically, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I disagreed so strongly that I put an end to my studies there. Instead, I decided to focus on improving my sewing skills to a point where even the seams that are not visible are sewn to be perfectly accurate and straight. I am a perfectionist like my dad, and I do not make any compromises.

So does that mean that you have officially only acquired elementary education?
Officially, yes. But there is so much more to becoming a fashion designer and/or a good seamstress then formal education. I spent a lot of my time after school learning fashion design and improving my sewing skills with a very hands-on approach. My Armenian uncles, who ran a tailored clothing shop, took me in and I spent a decent amount of time working side-by-side with adult seamstresses, observing their craft, learning from them. Thanks to them I gained valuable experience and skills which I tap into almost daily even to this day. I then lived for a couple of years in the city of Krasnodar in Russia where the tailored clothing mentality also gave me a lot of new insight into how clients are supposed to be treated and communicated with. In the end, I returned to the Czech Republic.

And established your own brand?
Not right away, no. After my return, it took me about a year and a half before the Hermine Khalaf Pogosyan brand was founded.
There were several reasons for establishing my own brand. One of them was the experience with leading Czech designers, for whom I worked for 3 months as a seamstress. I saw many mistakes being made and certain practices that in my opinion had no place in this industry. It was roughly at that time that I also became a sewing instructor for the Burda magazine for a season. I was busier by the day. Before I knew it I was neck deep in work constantly sewing something; bespoke orders, presentations, preparing lesson plans, delivering courses, you name it. Although I was only accepting tailored sewing orders, the work was quickly piling up. When my husband saw the sheer amount of clothes that I was sewing, at the time at home, next to him in the living room, with no advertising whatsoever, he saw great potential and set it all in motion.

What exactly should we imagine it is that you create as part of your work at your studio?
This is definitely a question for my husband because he enjoys answering it. When creating our website, he even used the sentence that, if asked, I would make a space suit for an astronaut. Basically, the more you master a craft, the more the obstacles are removed, and by working with my seamstresses on the design, construction and the final sewing of every piece, I am able to create almost anything my clients desire.
The truth is that our original bespoke sewing service has been expanded upon and, in addition to it, we offer a ready-to-wear collection and a collection of wedding and formal dresses that we manually embroider. The embroidery techniques that we apply to our dresses vary from standard to very time consuming techniques that are taught only in France; they are extremely demanding, lengthy and expensive to realize but the final pro-duct is always worth it. Thanks to this, we can guarantee our clients
a level of exclusivity that we have yet to come across in the Czech Republic. And all this at a very high level of quality. We spend a lot of time explaining this to our new clients as it is very important to us that they understand why the Hermine Khalaf Pogosyan brand exists in the first place. It is only after that that we start working out the specifics of the order itself.
Once you decide to place an order with us, first, you have to understand why and how the clothes are made here. It is important to get to know each other so that I can best serve you and so that you can decide if you want the clothes that I create, because for me it really isn’t a matter of what I create, but how I create it.

Who operates the business side of things and who do you dress?
The brand, which today dresses both famous actresses and singers as well as women of all ages across the Czech and Slovak Republics, is comprised of a team of 10 people. And spearheading the team is my husband Marsel and yours truly.
We are continually shattering the notion that married couples cannot work together; on the contrary, it is impossible for us to imagine working without each other. My husband is in charge of business development and marketing and I, with my team of seamstresses, take care of the artistic and production side of things, which includes designing collections, sewing and maintaining the quality of the craft. We both strongly believe that through hard work and dedication we can set a world class standard helping to educate our customers on how to approach quality in clothing, and why the Hermine Khalaf Pogosyan brand exists and what its legacy is.
We want people to perceive clothing, to perceive its seams and workmanship. At our first meeting we introduce our brand’s history to each client and proceed to carefully explain the functionality of the fabrics that we use, the benefits of each of the materials and how much they cost and why. We strive to be as transparent as possible, so we openly conduct a price analysis with our clients, so everyone knows exactly what they are paying for. It is important to us to set the rules and make sure our principles are understood from the get go.
The way we see it is that a good company is recognized by how it can solve problems that may occur from time to time. That is why we welcome every challenge because we can demonstrate to our clients and peers that
a customer can still leave not only satisfied but excited with our products and services, despite any mistakes on our part.

Where can we find you?
We are based in Vinohrady in Prague and are currently putting the finishing touches on HKP brand new premises. Until now, we have had to limit our order capacity to meet the high quality standards that we have set for ourselves, but with more space we definitely have a new opportunity to rectify that.

Kunětická 2, Praha 2
Tel.: +420 703 362 361
info@hermine.cz
www.hermine.cz

CMAEM is a voluntary organization based on solidarity of women entrepreneurs and their willingness to help other women entrepreneurs and managers to work in their professional life, to learn to combine it not only with family life, but also with personal development. Since 1995 CMAEM has been the association with the longest tradition in the Czech Republic and the largest functional network on the regional, national, international level.

Many of us have admired the beauty of flags and arms. But have you ever thought about who creates such extraordinary works of art? In the Czech Republic, there is a family with a 300 year long tradition in embroidery, who runs a family firm Velebny & Fam s.r.o. lead by Hana and Zdenek Velebny. Zdenek Velebny is a man who, when standing in front of you, reminds you of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este.

Founder and Managing Director for EU, Serbia and Russia EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION in Prague, Czech Republic

Vladislav Stanko is a patriot, philanthropist, successful entrepreneur and a deputy of the city of Kosice since December 2018. He operates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and outside of the EU also. He has sponsored many charity projects such as Help the Children of NROS and ČT, Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation Vision 97, Beauty of Help founded by Miss World 2006 Taťána Gregor Brzobohatá (Kuchařová), Chantal Poullain-Polívková’s Archa Chantal, TREBBIA Endowment, Miss World DEAF, Miss Folklore, IPCA World Individual Chess Championship for physically disabled along with other projects.

Květuše Mentová and Jiří Janeček are people who run their restaurant and hotel business as if it were a kind of theater. They have thought everything through, down to the smallest details, and their own original concepts, style, and taste are present everywhere. They have turned their businesses into unique projects, providing a boundless devotion and willingness to work in the interest of their clients, and they always bring real results and open new possibilities. They are creative people who are able to attract clients, to make them interested and surprised. They are both professionals and they know everything there is to know in their field. Květuše and Jiří understand the secret of a successful business, so in their restaurants and hotels they offer not just food and accommodation but also a pleasant atmosphere, comfort, and new experiences.

As is known, a man becomes great because of his work, and if beside him there is a woman, who believes that he will certainly achieve success. When a man knows that his woman loves him, it gives him an incentive to become even better and stronger. Who knows what would be the fate of our favorite musicians, artists, directors, and writers if their beloved women were not next to them.