As part of our LGBTQ+ Roma good practice stories, it is necessary to write about Pavel Berky. The Czech Republic is known for its negative attitude towards the Roma community, and although LGBTQ+ people are doing well in the Czech Republic compared to some countries, they are still largely overlooked.

Pavel Berky has gained an incredible number of female fans and has become one of the most popular contestants on the TV competition MasterChef, despite being Roma and gay. The proof is in the social networks, the countless followers and the people who support him. He even released a calendar before Christmas 2020, which had a great response and many people bought it. In our context, it is a great achievement that a gay Romani person has such a positive reaction and favour.

Pavel was born into an ordinary Romani family in Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia. Since childhood he was attracted to drawing, painting and other creative activities. He loved dressing up and drew various clothing designs on his notebooks. At that time, however, he did not know that there was such a thing as a career as a fashion designer. But it happened, and Paul has come an interesting way on his way to his dream of becoming a designer.

He graduated from the fashion design studio at UMPRUM in Prague, lived in France and England and won prestigious competitions. At the beginning of 2017, Pavel made the first stop of his spring fashion show tour. He presented his autumn collection during New York Fashion Week. In it, Pavel began to combine high fashion with street fashion for the first time. He was inspired by the streets of London, where the intermingling of different cultures and lifestyles of people from all corners of the world, at first glance perhaps even incompatible, becomes a reality.

In the same year, a new competition, The Way, began to take shape, which had no parallel in the Czech Republic. It was a reality show for fashion designers and the main idea was "From the studio to the Designer Gallery". This competition set out to chart the journey from the first ideas of a new collection to the finished models and their presentation on the catwalk. Pavel entered The Way and was selected as one of the 8 finalists. - https://pavelberky.com/o-pavlovi/

Pavel Berky also led a creative workshop at the first meeting of Roma gay people in 2014 - the first in the Czech Republic, Europe and probably the world.
 

Although Pavel did not win the Masterchef competition, he made it to the top 3. He broadcasts his cooking on social media and plans to publish his first cookbook. At the same time, it cannot be forgotten that he has his own fashion brand. "I love fashion, but cooking is my passion ", says Pavel Berky.