Supporting Balkan Businesses: Reflecting on the Balkan Bred Print Ad
Modeling the Balkan Soul sweatshirt.
In late April, I took part in a photoshoot for the wonderful brand Balkan Bred.
Balkan Bred was started a few years ago by Emina Pelja -- a Bosnian-American woman based in Atlanta. I had been a customer since the early days, and even participated in a Q&A and print ad in 2018/2019 to help promote both my senior project EP as well as the new Balkan Boss Babe collection. Thus, when Emina announced she was going to be doing a product photoshoot in NYC this year and was looking for people to model the products, I immediately knew I wanted to participate.
The photoshoot took place over two days and at various locations throughout New York City. It was wonderful to get to finally meet Emina face to face (up until then, I’d only known her from our emailing and from Instagram) and also to get to know the other Balkan models from the area.
Something I really love about Balkan Bred is that, even though Emina is Bosnian, she really tries to place equal focus on all areas of the Balkans and this was especially true with the models. It was so nice to connect with one another and, for those few hours, be in a space where everyone understood each other and the struggle of being so far from home.
Perhaps the best result of meeting everyone was coming out of this experience with proper friendships. One of the models and I bonded over our love of Formula 1 and W Series, another one told me all about their dog and invited me to meet her, and yet another told me all about their plans to attend the first gay pride parade in Serbia this year.
Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I’m so happy to support Balkan-centered businesses, especially this one.
You can head over to BalkanBred.com to order any of these pieces.
xx Selma
Group photo! Modeling “Sve Će Doći na Svoje Mjesto” Sweatshirt