From Tatler to Muller's report: how the 'first Russian it-girl' turned out to be connected with the US president

Miroslav Duma is called the first Russian it-girl and one of the most influential girls in the fashion industry. The Duma has founded several projects - the magazine Buro 24 / 7, the website for young mothers The Tot and the Fashion Tech Lab Foundation for supporting fashion-friendly start-ups.

Фото: Depositphotos

As a result, the publishing house became her place of work for several years. Then Duma collaborated with Harper's Bazaar, Tatler, Forbes Woman, L'Officiel and Vogue. Soon the former intern realized that the publishers of fashion magazines did not learn how to work with consumers of the new formation - those who read articles from smartphones and iPads.

Therefore, in 2011, the Duma launched Buro 24 / 7 - “an independent online publication for millenials about fashion, beauty, culture, travel, media and important trends in modern society”. The project has become global - today it works in 11 countries: Russia, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, in the countries of the Middle East and Ukraine. The expansion of the Duma took 5 years.

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The next project, The Tot, was launched in 2016 with Nasiba Adilova. The founders said that they had come up with a website for young mothers while they were pregnant - they understood that it can be difficult for women to find the necessary information about pregnancy and motherhood on the Internet. In addition, products for children that are sold online are not always safe and of high quality. So The Tot has become both an online store and a magazine.

In 2017, the Duma announced the launch of Fashion Tech Lab (FTL), a hybrid investment fund and experimental lab. “The fashion and clothing industry is the second largest source of pollution in the world. I was shocked when I found out about it, and I began to think what can be done about it, ”she said then. Dozens of Western publications wrote about the fund, and the Financial Times published Article "New Industrial Revolution of Miroslava Duma". In an interview with the newspaper, the founder of the foundation said that she wanted not only to support start-ups, but also to simplify brand access to technologies that would help make the production of goods, including luxury ones, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Racist scandal, boycott and withdrawal from projects

Photo: Instagram / @ naseebs

In March, the Duma left the Buro 24 / 7. The announcement on the publication’s website stated that the founder of the project retired from management in 2017 and now, according to the agreements, sold the shares: “Miroslav Dum sells the shares in Buro 24 / 7, concentrating its activities exclusively on the development of the Future Tech Lab and announced personal projects. From now on, the future activities of Miroslava are not officially connected with Buro 24 / 7 ”.

Create an iPhone in the world of fashion. Why is the Duma an investment fund

The Duma, as promised, focused on investing in startups. In an interview with the Financial Times, the founder of FTL told me that she wanted to erase the boundaries between technology and fashion: “We are talking about wearable technology — algorithms embedded in the fabric that can solve many of your problems, like the iPhone did. In the future, you will wear technology. " The decision to launch the Duma’s own foundation was helped, including acquaintances in Silicon Valley: she learned how modern technologies work from the executive director of Magic Leap Rachny Basin and digital technology director at LVMH Jan Rogers, who comes from Apple. “They took me to all these laboratories where things were created that can really help the environment, the planet and people. I got a chance to talk to the scientists who did it. I thought that we would speak in different languages, but I realized that it was close to me, ”she said.

What Fashion Tech Lab has invested in

Reformation - American clothing brand, promoting ethical production (production that does not harm nature, animals and people).

JUST WATER Is a water company founded by Will Smith and Jayden Smith. Spring water is released in packs of biodegradable materials.

Hydrop - eco-friendly means for the care of clothing: cleaning things and protection from moisture. The company's founders say they use nanotechnology.

Diamond foundry - factory of artificial diamonds.

Dropel fabrics - a company that makes clothing "viable." Creates durable fabrics from natural materials.

Vitro labs - creates artificial skin in the laboratory. Now he is working on creating skin grown from stem cells.

Bolt threads - produces bioengineering tissues, for example, from artificially grown cobwebs or silk made from proteins.

EVRNU - recycles used cotton clothes and creates new-type fiber fabrics.

Mycoworks - creates artificial skin from mycelium and agricultural waste.

Worn again - technology of waste-free processing of fabrics, which allows to reduce costs in the production of clothing.

The Duma referred to studies that, by the year of 2022, 10% of the world's population will wear clothes that are connected to the Internet: “Imagine? 10% of 7,5 billion people. " The girl did not hide that she was interested primarily luxury brands. This is not about the personal preferences of the Duma: such companies seem cumbersome, but in reality they are interested in technologies that will simplify the production process and make it cheaper. In addition, brands want to look better in the eyes of consumers, many of whom are concerned about the state of the environment and choose conscious consumption.

Russian Vogue recalls that the Duma is the holder of the MGIMO diploma in international business management, the daughter of the senator and the wife of Alexei Mikheev, the former director of the machine-tool and investment machine-building department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the IT entrepreneur. According to the magazine, “God himself ordered Miroslav to manage an investment fund.” In an interview with the magazine, she told me that she considered the team to be the main achievement — according to the Duma, she was looking for scientists, financiers and bankers all over the world to lure them into FTL. The first results of the work of the laboratory became the capsular collection of clothes and accessories of Salvatore Ferragamo from Orange Fiber materials, which are based on the waste from the production of orange juice, and Stelle McCartney clothes from spider silk Bolt Threads. Spider silk hats - there were only 200 pieces - sold out in 19 minutes.

In the same interview, the Duma admitted that she was proud of the opportunity to do more serious things - and attend not fashion shows, but economic forums: “I am proud that I came to the meeting of young leaders at the World Economic Forum and ended up in the company with Emmanuel Macron, Sergey Brinom and Amal Clooney. "

Fashion tech is an interesting direction, investors say. “I am glad when new funds appear led by our compatriots. I consider the direction promising, I also invest in such projects, for example, in my portfolio there is a startup aveeva.ru - a designer of clothes, ”said Inc. business angel Alexander Rumyantsev. Venture investor and partner of iTech Capital Alexey Soloviev explained Inc.That focus on a niche is a trend among funds. “A few years ago, they were skeptical about narrow specialization in the venture capital market, but today this is probably one of the most promising strategies for a venture capital fund. Omnivorous and diversification recede into the background. Market players gain experience in some specific segments and subsequently focus their efforts on them. If the fund does not limit itself to work in the local market, then in the world it will always find a sufficiently large pipeline to search for objects for investments. Now there are fewer people who invest in the Internet or Saas or, all the more, “high tech” startups, and more and more those who, like Fashion Tech Lab, are focused in a niche in which he is well versed, ”said he.

Fake news and money laundering charges

The letters were written with spelling errors, no evidence that the Duma really broke the law, they were not. Wong's article was not about Kiev Fashion Resistance letters, but about the effect they produced. Cynthia Spoon, a fashion photographer, in a conversation with Refinery29 admitted that she immediately recognized the letter in a fake, but could not stop thinking about it. “I went through every link indicated in the letter, google every name mentioned in it,” she said. The photographer admitted that she had previously had to wonder about the origin of the state of the Duma - a girl from Russia who was able to build a business empire. Wong spoke with other recipients of the letter - they confessed that they had not stated this openly, not wanting to get involved in the fake campaign against the Duma.

Alexey Kovalev, the founder of the Lapshesnimalochnaya project, in a conversation with Wong, suggested that people who had personal complaints about the entrepreneur sent out fake letters: "She obviously has enough enemies and envious ones." However, 4 in March, 2018, Kiev Fashion Resistance, sent similar letters about Natalia Vodyanova, and 10 in April - about Darya Zhukova, founder of the Garage Museum and the former wife of billionaire Roman Abramovich. Duma, Vodyanova and Zhukov did not comment on this. Russian journalist Roman Anin, editor of the investigative department of Novaya Gazeta, told Refinery29 that letters should not be taken seriously: “This is a poor-quality campaign. It is obvious that the authors of the letters did not have access to the documents. Anyone could write this. ” Nobody knows about who Kiev Fashion Resistance is and why they tried to discredit the Duma with the help of letters written with mistakes.

The name of Miroslavy Duma is mentioned in the report only 1 times. The first one to notice this was Bloomberg reporter Kim Besin. “Somehow, Miroslav Duma got into the Muller report,” he tweeted. Half an hour later, Connie Wong responded to this news. It was enough for news and articles about Duma's participation in the political scandal to be published by Vogue, Time, Harper's Bazaar, Fortune, and others. The report says that Duma knows Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump. A Russian woman allegedly tried to invite Ivanka and her father to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) back in 2015. She conveyed an invitation on behalf of the head of the government administration, Sergey Prikhodko, but the Trump refused to come, citing a tight schedule.

The Western media that wrote about this indicate that the Duma has strong ties with Russia, in particular, her father and husband. The Duma itself did not comment in any way on the mentioning of its name in the Muller report, nor the representatives of the foundation it created. On request Inc. she did not answer, as did the representatives of FTL.

The Duma has been avoiding talking to journalists in recent months, but an April 25 interview with it appeared on the Jing Daily Chinese website. The entrepreneur said that FTL is actively cooperating with local startups and considers China a market with great potential. “We worked with Tencent and Alibaba Group to stimulate the growth of the fashion industry with the help of sustainable technologies. [...] We are amazed at how innovative and environmentally friendly the Chinese market has become, and will continue to explore environmentally friendly technologies with our Chinese partners, ”said Duma.

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