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Reuters | , Posted by Akanksha Agnihotribelgrade
Jelena Asimovic is no model, but on Friday evening she walked down the aisle at Belgrade Fashion Week in a dress designed by Dior and modeled after her 14-year-old sister, who was killed in a school massacre last year. Angelina Asimovic was in history class when her classmate, a 13-year-old boy, entered the school and opened fire, killing nine students and a guard. “This dress is white and like a wedding dress, she didn’t live long enough to see me as a bride,” Jelena said before the show.
To celebrate Angelina’s life, her family last year called on designers to create costumes based on drawings she drew when she was 10 and attended a designer course for children. Several Serbian designers responded and two dresses were created by Dior. Angelina’s two sisters, nine of her young friends, and several professional models dressed up and fled.
“There was joy and beauty in every drawing. She had a very serious approach,” said Serbian designer Bata Spasojevic, who was among the first designers to respond to the Asimovic family’s call to revive their daughter’s sketches. Angelina’s other sister, Marija, wore a beautiful sleeveless pink dress with a train. Pink was Angelina’s favorite color, she said.
“I’m thinking about Angelina that she’s with us this evening and that she’s happy with what we’re doing,” Marija said. Angelina’s father Andjelko Asimovic established a foundation in his youngest daughter’s name to commemorate her life. Asimovic said, “We believe she is watching what we are doing and will do everything we can to make her proud just like she made us proud.”
Last year, 18 people were killed in two shootings on May 3 and 4 – one at an elementary school and the other in a small town outside Belgrade. The two shootings shocked Serbia and sparked the largest anti-government protests since the Serbian Progressive Party took power. In 2012, the government was prompted to call snap elections.
This story is published from a wire agency feed without any modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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