Fashion Designer Anouki Areshidze Pregnant with Fourth Child

Fashion designer, former model, and Tbilisi’s first lady, Anouki Areshidze, is pregnant with her fourth child by husband Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi. The couple, who have been together since 2008, already have three young children.  

Areshidze studied fashion in Italy at Istituto Marangoni Milano and Accademia del Lusso. At just 23 she established her ready-to-wear brand, ANOUKI, which achieved fast success in Georgia. Her personal Instagram page has 214,000 followers and gives viewers a glimpse inside the glamorous life of Tbilisi’s first lady and her family. She strategically hid her growing baby bump until both she and husband Kaladze revealed the news on Instagram yesterday with the caption “6 months.”

In a 2017 interview with Forbes, when asked the question inevitably asked to all successful women, how she balances it all, Areshidze said, “First of all, I’m a mother; then a wife and after that a designer. It helps my priorities. We are just starting our new life [Kaladze’s first term as mayor began November 20] and it will bring more changes. My husband helped me a lot to follow my dream. Now I want to be very active in this new role, very, how do you say … visible. It’s not for only me. It’s for other women and the children. I have a chance now to do very good things for them, for the future.” She also emphasizes her desire to be more active in charitable contributions, and recognizes that in a country where many people are still food insecure, fashion can seem a rather hollow pursuit. When asked in the same interview why she continues to show in Georgia after successfully working in Paris and Milan, Anouki said “Tbilisi is my home. This is my people. Every time, when we have a show here, people call and send messages on Instagram. People really wait for this; it’s like a celebration. I feel very happy about it. I’m lucky that people like my style.”

ANOUKI has won praise from Vogue, Zoe Magazine, and Forbes, among others. Her shows, including fashion weeks around the world and regular appearances at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Tbilisi, are always packed. ANOUKI and MISS ANOUKI brand merchandise can be found online on Facebook, Instagram, or Tumblr, and in person at 2 Tarkhnishvili St. ANOUKI’s latest collection, fall/winter 2018, was presented at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi earlier this month, led by internationally renowned Georgian model Tako Natsvlishvili.

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: OK Magazine