... divalicious
Uzbek 'princess': Alisher Usmanov's glamorous niece-in-law, Diora Usmanova, is an Uzbek 'princess' who dresses Russia's oligarch kids in costumes costing £5,000, equivalent to the annual pay of 13 people on a minimum wage in her native Uzbekistan
Follow @KonnieMoments1
Diora Usmanova, 27, has opened a couture-for-kids outlet in Moscow
Check out the sumptious life style after the cut ...
... pensive
Photo: Instagram/diora_u
Uzbek 'princess': Alisher Usmanov's glamorous niece-in-law, Diora Usmanova, is an Uzbek 'princess' who dresses Russia's oligarch kids in costumes costing £5,000, equivalent to the annual pay of 13 people on a minimum wage in her native Uzbekistan
Follow @KonnieMoments1
'The Uzbek Marie Antoinette and the modern day czar'
Diora Usmanova, 27, has opened a couture-for-kids outlet in Moscow
She is the niece of long time Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Her uncle is loyal to human rights abusing President Islam Karimov
Her store sells pearl-encrusted dresses in homage to Russia's tsarist past
Check out the sumptious life style after the cut ...
... pensive
Backlash: Diora, 27, the niece-in-law
of Arsenal tycoon Alisher Usmanov, has been criticised for her couture
for kids outlet in Moscow, that sells outfits worth £5,000 for children
despite her country's poverty
Meet
Arsenal tycoon Alisher Usmanov's glamorous niece-in-law, an Uzbek
'princess' who dresses Russia's oligarch kids in costumes costing
£5,000, equivalent to the annual pay of 13 people on a minimum wage in
her native Uzbekistan.
Widow
and heiress Diora Usmanova, 27, is facing a furious backlash over her
ostentatious displays of opulence in one of the world's poorest
countries outside Africa.
Her
new uber-posh couture-for-kids outlet in Moscow offers pearl-encrusted
dresses based on the designs of Russia's tsarist past, but she has been
slated for 'hypocrisy' and 'immorality' - and accused of being out of
touch with the life of ordinary people as the country's old Romanov
rulers.
Couture tot: Diora launched her
high-end range for children after her daughter Mariyam complained of not
having a fancy dress to wear. Diora posts images of her daughter to her
129,000 followers on Instagram
... pretty in red
... pretty in red
Image-conscious
infant: A poster girl for the new-rich in the post-Soviet Union,
prominent Instagrammer Diora posts many pictures of her daughter Mariyam
and called her design label Bibione after her
... cuddles
... cuddles
Brutal: Diora's uncle, the Prime
Minister of Uzbekistan is a long time supporter of brutal President
Islam Karimov who has notoriously boiled enemies in oil
She
is niece of long-time Uzbek prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a
loyalist to 78 year old autocratic president Islam Karimov, who is
notorious for boiling his political foes to death. He also placed his
own billionaire daughter Gulnara, 43, under house arrest for alleged
corruption.
During
his rise to power, Diora's 'brutal' uncle is blamed by human rights
groups for beating Eshniyoz Hamzayev, a maths teachers, in 2000 because
his students were picking cotton too slowly. He died five days later.
'I get depressed in Paris after a week of being there... Paris is boring'
He
is also held responsible over the 2002 torture and murder in his then
fiefdom of Samarkand of the 18 year old grandson of Uzbek dissident and
literature professor Jamal Mirsaidov.
The
teenager's mutilated corpse - one arm had been immersed in hot water -
was dumped on the academic's doorstep four hours after Mirsaidov met
then British ambassador Craig Murray to discuss the widespread use of
torture in Uzbekistan.
A
poster girl for the new-rich in the post-Soviet Union, prominent
Instagrammer Diora with 128,000 followers is being mocked for her latest
pronouncements in Tatler's Russian edition, such as her dismissive
comments about the French capital, which she decided was not glitzy
enough for opening her new Bibione Couture brand, called after her four
year old daughter Mariyam's nickname.
'I get depressed in Paris after a week of being there,' she bemoaned. 'Moscow is fun and Paris is boring.'
Out of touch: Her ostentatious Tsarist
designs have been slated for being hypocritical and immoral. She makes
outspoken comments on Instagram such as: 'I get depressed in Paris after
a week of being there. Paris is boring'
...fairytale world
...fairytale world
Inspiration: Diora has revealed how
her daughter inspired her label. She said: 'I had forever dressed her in
unassuming Bonpoint - but that day my little Mariyam said: 'I want to
leave.' 'I asked her why, and she said: 'Mother, I don't have a
beautiful dress'. 'Imagine, she was only two years old then, she had
just learned to speak and she already felt uneasy'
Mother and daughter chic: Diora's
Instagram is full of images of her daughter Mariyam but she also
comments spikily about her travels, writing, 'In two months of living
the Swiss life, I found myself dressed in an oversized sweater and
realised I was even running out of the house wearing flip flops'
Photo: Instagram/diora_u
Smarten up:
With Tatler saying 'it is becoming the fashion to show children off',
Usmanova insisted, 'I hope to see the time when children will be coming
to events dressed in couture dresses, not trainers'
Worse still is Switzerland's tasteless lack of chic, according to the opinionated Usmanova .
She
once lived in the town of Zug - the most boring place in the world,
according to her, where her husband Babur worked for MetalloInvest, a
company owned by his billionaire pro-Kremlin uncle Alisher Usmanov, who
owns 30.4 per cent of Arsenal Football Club in London, a stake he is
seeking to increase, which could make him, perhaps, the next owner.In
two months of living the Swiss life, I found myself dressed in an
oversized sweater and realised I was even running out of the house
wearing flip flops
She lamented: 'Nothing happens in Zug.
'And the most awful thing is that you begin to get yourself adjusted to the local community.
'I
kept doing my hair for a while, and in two months of living the Swiss
life, I found myself dressed in an oversized sweater and realised I was
even running out of the house wearing flip flops.'
Her
own country, Uzbekistan, ruthlessly crushes any opposition to her
uncle's government while human rights groups say rape is used as a
method of torture in its jails.
Even
her beloved Moscow - where a girl called Imperia was paraded at her
boutique's opening dressed in a pearl encrusted chiffon dress attended
by 'all Moscow showbiz babies' - must smarten up, she demanded.
With
Tatler saying 'it is becoming the fashion to show children off',
Usmanova insisted: 'I hope to see the time when children will be coming
to events dressed in couture dresses, not trainers.'
...sultry
...sultry
Beautiful: Russian Tatler describes Diora Usmanova as tall and 'strikingly beautiful'
...short lived bliss
...short lived bliss
Wealth: She married Babur Usmanov, whose childless Arsenal shareholder uncle is worth £10.25 billion
Photo: East2West
Killed: Diora's husband Babur died in a car crash in Tashkent in May 2013 with companion Kristina Yuldasheva
Sudden: Babur was killed in the early hours after driving a friend home after a friend's birthday party
Her
new elite fashion outlet was launched after her daughter - then aged
two - complained to her about the French designer outfits she was
dressed in.
'My daughter came to some children's event where everyone was dressed to their nines,' Usmanova explained.
'I had forever dressed her in unassuming Bonpoint - but that day my little Mariyam said: 'I want to leave.'
'I asked her why, and she said: 'Mother, I don't have a beautiful dress'.
'Imagine, she was only two years old then, she had just learned to speak and she already felt uneasy.
Widowed: Diora's life changed when her husband Babur suddenly died in a car crash in May 2013
Uncle in law: Diora married the nephew
of Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, seen above with wife Irina
Viner. His nephew Babur who was killed in a car crash in 2013
...alleged oil boiler
...alleged oil boiler
Autocrat: Diora is the niece of
long-time Uzbek prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a loyalist to 78 year
old autocratic president Islam Karimov, pictured above, who is
notorious for boiling his political foes to death
'I called my mother and asked her to help and make something for our baby.'
Usmanova's
life changed when her husband - once seen as a favoured heir to
62-year-old Usmanov, worth £10.25 billion, who has no biological
children - was killed along with glamorous companion Kristina
Yuldasheva, 23, when his Ford Cabriolet crashed in the Uzbek capital
three years ago.
'People
told me that it went quieter in Tashkent, and even in restaurants and
on the streets people didn't laugh out loud,' she said.
'Everyone was shocked by the sudden death of such a very young, beautiful and successful man.'
The
Arsenal shareholder - now the second richest man in Britain who made
his fortune from metals, mining, mobile phones, and the internet - was
left 'devastated' by the loss of his 30-year-old nephew, according to
reports.
Support: Diora said she says she was helped through her bereavement by Alisher Usmaov's wife Irina Viner
...cinderella
...cinderella
Superman: Diora tells her daughter that her deceased father is 'invisible' and a 'superman'
The
widow says she was helped through her bereavement by Alisher Usmaov's
wife Irina Viner, her aunt by marriage and Russia's leading rhythmic
gymnastics coach, who trained and mentored Vladimir Putin's suspected
'lover' Alina Kabaeva, 32, a former Olympic gold medallist.
'She took my hand at that time, and has not let me go since,' Usmanova said of Viner, 67.
'She is one of the people who were sent to this world to be teachers.
'Whenever I sit down with her and listen to her advice, I feel like I can fly. And all doubts leave me.'
Usmanova
admitted she was stung by the way the tragic death of her husband was
reported, after he had been to a friend's birthday party, and was killed
while driving a female companion home at 5.15am .
Elite: Her store was launched after
her daughter, then aged two - complained to her about the French
designer outfits she was dressed in and said she wanted a 'beautiful
dress'
Showbiz babies: She says she wants children to come to events in 'couture dresses, not trainers'
Russia's Tatler accuses of of using
children just to show off fashion. Her boutique's opening featured a
girl called Imperia was paraded in a pearl encrusted chiffon dress
It was stated he was 'giving her a lift home' after the party.
One
version was that he was killed in a political assassination because
Karimov feared the uniting of the powerful Mirziyoyev and Usmanov clans.
'It was so hurtful and hard,' she said.
'And then I thought: 'But who are these people? What do they have to do with us?
''And it helped me stop caring about what others thought'.'
She tells her daughter that her dead father is 'invisible'.
'He is not like other fathers. He is a magician and he can fly.
'I think I should not feel sorry for her. I don't feel sorry for myself because I don't want my feelings to reflect on her.
'She has her mother, her grandparents and things which millions of children don't have.
'And she does see her Dad as an almighty superman who is cooler that any other father.'
Inspired: He luxury brand - Bibiona - was inspired by images of aristocracy described by Leo Tolstoy
Family links: According to people in
her home city Tashkent, she is known for her family connections, and not
her designing talents
Russian Tatler describes Diora Usmanova as tall and 'strikingly beautiful'.
'When
she runs up a stairs at Moscow Simachev Bar, dressed from top to toes
in modest beige Chloe, the female customers shower her with unhappy
looks,' reported the society magazine.
Modestly, the Uzbek princess protested: 'Oh no, no, I wasn't even trying hard.'
She 'doesn't like to talk about her influential relatives' when explaining how her business was launched, she told the magazine.
'If you have serious family, people don't notice you,' she said.
'But I want to make my own name.
'When
people write that I am someone's niece it means that all my modest
victories get covered by a shadow of somebody else's big name.
Frankly,
even if I myself read that somebody's daughter made a luxurious
collection all I would think is that she just hired a designer and did
nothing herself
'Frankly,
even if I myself read that somebody's daughter made a luxurious
collection all I would think is that she just hired a designer and did
nothing herself.'
She insists that her success is down to her hard work and that of her mother Sayora Khashimova who acts as her designer.
'I
was so nervous that people in Moscow wouldn't understand it, but I had
no need to fear. There's a baby boom here and no-one thinks night clubs
anymore, everyone is busy with their kids.'
Russian OK described her new 'world brand' as 'a fairytale for young princes and princesses'.
The
up-market opening was noted for its 'feather-decorated gilded bird
cages and fantastic cakes', and seemed to defy gravity in Russia,
currently hit by economic misery over Western sanctions, a collapsed
rouble, and low oil prices .
'Bibiona
brings back images of young aristocratic ladies and gentlemen of past
centuries, where luxury was a habit from birth,' said one account.
'The brand's founder Diora Usmanova was inspired by images described by Leo Tolstoy.'
But the flow of sugar-coated features about Diora has led to a blistering attack in the country's opposition media.
A
tirade against her on the Uzbekistan Chronical's website, states: 'She
doesn't like to talk about her very influential relatives.
In her own country, Uzbekistan, any
opposition to her uncle's government is ruthlessly crushed while human
rights groups say rape is used as a method of torture in its jails
Torture: Diora's 'brutal' uncle Prime
Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev (above) is blamed by human rights groups for
beating a maths teacher in 2000 because his students were picking
cotton too slowly - he died five days later
Boring: She dismissed the Swiss town of Zug (pictured) as 'the most boring place in the world'
'Diora
is indeed quite well known in Tashkent. However this is not because of
her talents, but thanks to two factors: one called 'being the nephew's
widow', the second, 'being a niece' (to the prime minister).
The publication revealed she has another, unprintable, nickname 'and this one she can definitely consider being her own'.
'We
are not talking about her private life, but about hypocrisy and her
family's approach viewing Uzbekistan as a gold mine which has to be used
to suck out as much as possible,' it stated.
'We
are talking about a gigantic divide between elites and the people of
Uzbekistan, who have to live without electricity, gas, petrol and cash.
'If
Diora was to go to an Uzbek province, she would have found it a very
entertaining trip, unlike when she went to Zug (in Switzerland).'
Here
the local children 'cannot afford dresses' and are forced to 'help
their parents to gather cotton for which the government then pays
peanuts - and which Diora Usmanova will use to make a dress for $6,000
US dollars.
'We
are talking about a huge difference between her showroom in the centre
of Moscow and a seamstresses factory on the suburb of Moscow, where her
compatriot guest workers died while trapped in a huge fire - all because
their government didn't provide proper working conditions.
'We
are talking about lack of moral principles and social responsibility
from the so-called golden youth, when the majority of people suffer from
daily cases of corruption.'
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