Polina Fashion

Polina Raygorodskaya, 22www.polinafashion.com)Boston

Then:

Back in April 2006, Russian native Polina Raygorodskaya drew on her experience as a fashionmodel to start a company that produced fashion events. As of October 2007, the business wasprofitable and had produced about 50 events for designers with price tags of $2,000 to$15,000. Raygorodskaya's future goal was to put together an event in 2009 that could bring inabout $2 million in revenues.

Now:

"So much has happened with Polina Fashion over the past six months that it almost looks like awhole new company," says Raygorodskaya. Since the press would repeatedly contact theBoston-based company to ask about the designers whose shows Polina had organized,Raygorodskaya decided to move into the public relations sphere as well. "It made more sensefor us to be representing [the designers] on a larger basis," she says. Since then, the companyhas put on about 20events all in the $7,000 to $30,000 range, and has doubled revenues over the past year while becoming a one-stop shop for designers: coveringeverything fromproduction to publicity to branding. The initial major event in 2009 hasbeen postponed, butRaygorodskaya says the company is now teaming with another company for a similar idea: athree-day fashionevent in June 2009.