Maria Podgorbunskaya

Maria Podgorbunskaya is out front at Kazakhstan Fashion Week

Maria Podgorbunskaya (a.k.a. Мария Подгорбунская) is the editor-in-chief of the Kazakhstan edition of the monthly fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar.^[1] Though published in the Republic of Kazakhstan by The Independent Media Sanoma Magazines for the local community the magazine's content is totally presented in Russian language.

Maria Podgorbunskaya was born on February 1, 1980 in Oskemen (a.k.a. Ust-Kamenogorsk), East Kazakhstan where she earned a degree in English language from the Institute of Foreign Languages.

In early 2000s Maria moved to Almaty, the ex-capital of Kazakhstan and the biggest city with the most developed economy in the country. There in 2003 she started her career as PR-manager, later Special Projects Manager for the fashion magazine Elite Woman, the official Kazakhstan supplement to Vogue Russia. The anaging Director of Elite Woman, Talant Soronoev also served as the acting Editor-in-Chief.

In September 2003 Maria was promoted to the position of Editorial Director at Elite Woman previously held by numerous persons among whom was Yuliana Puchkova.

In September 2004 Maria was offered the position of Editor-in-Chief at Elite Woman. With Maria's appointment the volume of pages as well as ads in Elite Women almost doubled. In October 2004 serving in the capacity of a publisher Maria Podgorbunskaya launched the Kazakhstan edition of Harper's Bazaar. Saule Isaeva, the Beauty Editor at Elite Woman, was designated as the Editor-in-Chief.

Soon after that Saule Isaeva was relieved of her duties and the names of the Editor-in-Chief on the credit-page kept changing almost each month until Maria Podgorbunskaya herself occupied the position.

Maria Podgorbunskaya and Zhanar Mirzazhanova, the Fashion Editor at Harper's Bazaar Kazakhstan are the only two journalists from Kazakhstan officially accredited by The Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode to the fashion shows in Paris.

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