Chicago resident Tali Kogan wears necklaces from her Malkari jewelry line. Kogan has also started a foundation that aids Ukrainian immigrants to Chicago due to war.

Tali Kogan wanted to do more than write a check when war broke out in her homeland.

“I was born in Ukraine. When war broke out, I was heartbroken,” Kogan said. “I wanted to do something for Ukraine.

“As someone who immigrated twice, I know what it’s like to run away with nothing. I didn’t just want to make a donation. I wanted to make an impact.”

Kogan, a stylist and jewelry creator, was able to find a Ukrainian refugee family of five who went through three days of travel to get to Chicago.

“They were not able to secure housing,” the noted stylist said. “My husband and I paid for their rent for a year.

“We realized there was a gap to fill. We decided to create a foundation.”

Kogan and her husband, Jason Fishbein, created the Sweet Dome Chicago Foundation, a charity to provide housing, employment and necessities to Ukrainian refugee families in the Chicago area.

Fishbein and Kogan are the main financial backers of the charity, which is working with 23 families.

“It is the thing I most proud of,” Kogan said. “I have four of the moms who work for me.

“We help with housing. We teach them English. We help with jobs,” Kogan said. “I have an influencer background. I used my different platforms to get them furniture.

“There are so many people who have donated time and money to the effort.”

The foundation’s name stems from the Ukrainian word for “home,” which is pronounced “dome.”

“This word is an appropriate metaphor of the immediate protection and the lifelong impact we wish to provide,” Fishbein and Kogan state on the foundation’s website.

‘I felt desperate’

Natalia Panchenko, her husband, Serhiy, and their three children immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine.

Kogan says jewelry can help women feel the “queen energy” to be successful.

“We weren’t able to rent an apartment and we moved from house to house of Ukrainian and Belorussian people who took us in and where we stayed one to three days,” Panchenko said. “Despite the unbelievable kindness of those amazing people, I felt desperate. It’s a horrible feeling when you have three kids and don’t know where you’re going to sleep next.”

Through a connection at a volunteer organization, Panchenko met Kogan.

“Tali and her family heard our story and decided to pay our rent for six months to give us a chance to live a normal life while we got back on our feet,” Panchenko said. “I could not believe an absolute stranger would pay that huge amount. That would take us a few years to save, if we were in Ukraine.”

“Tali and her family, in the most difficult time in our lives, were near us and just simply saved us,” Panchenko added.

Kogan said being able to help Ukrainian immigrant means the world to her.

“I wake up every morning so proud of the many people who have helped and the foundation, which is changing the world,” she said.

The Sweet Dome Chicago Foundation will be aided by Kogan’s launch of new collections in her jewelry line, Malkari. A portion of jewelry sales will go toward the foundation.

Jewelry line

Kogan said she launched the jewelry line in July to aid in her mission to empower women. The name Malkari comes from “Malk” and “Ari,” the Hebrew words for “queen” and “lion,” respectively.

“The lion is so strong and resilient, powerful and beautiful,” Kogan said.

She said her jewelry line was a natural evolution of her work as a stylist.

“It was unplanned,” Kogan said of her work as a stylist. “I say it was divine guidance.”

Born in Ukraine and raised in Israel, Kogan had a deep love of design and fashion.

Kogan has become a sought-after stylist, based at the 900 Shops in Downtown Chicago.

“I started a company to support Israeli designers in America. I did a lot of show of Israeli designers and generated funds,” Kogan said. “During the experience, people would come to me for fashion advice.

“I pivoted from selling Israeli designers to marketing and became an influencer.”

She said people liked her fashion style and asked her to help with their wardrobes, paying her for the effort.

“I was like ‘What? People are willing to pay me to tell them what to wear?’” Kogan said, “I started doing styling with my influencer work.”

Kogan said a woman can develop “queen energy” just by adding certain jewelry to her wardrobe.

“Queens wear crowns to help them feel beautiful,” Kogan said. “I want women to have a daily reminder that ‘I am a queen and that I am unstoppable.’”

She said generating queen energy is easier and more practical through jewelry instead of wardrobe, but she notes a “quality wardrobe is also essential.”

“You can mix things up and have so many different looks just by switching up the jewelry,” Kogan said. “Jewelry can make you feel amazing and elevate that queen energy.

“Jewelry can change the entire mood of an outfit.”

Setting the tone

She encourages women to set their intention on what they want to say with their outfit and accessories before getting dressed.

“Do a little self-love, a little mediation of gratitude,” Kogan said. “Think ‘What do I want to say today? What do I want to attract today? How do I want to feel today? What message am I going to send to the world?’ And then dress for it.

“I am on a personal mission to empower women through fashion.”

Kogan said it was only through empowering herself that she got through the most difficult chapter of her life — an abusive relationship.

“I was with an evil man. The only way to get out was to believe in myself,” she said. “I was promoting personal style without even knowing it. It took a lot of therapy and coaching.

An earring and other jewelry from the Malkari collection.

“Even while I was escaping a started to dress differently. I would go to the gym. I started loving myself, and beautiful things started happening. I found amazing friends. I went on my first job interview. I could barely speak English, but I got the job.”

She said she attracted attention by dressing for attention and promoting her inner queen.

“There’s a different energy for women. It’s all about attracting attention. How I attract attention is by feeling amazing about myself no matter what stage I am on. I tell women to not just dress up on special occasions. Jewelry is not only for special occasions.

“When you dress up for an event, you feel so amazing. You feel like a queen. You should feel like that every day. You don’t need to wear a gown every day to feel like that. You can wear a T-shirt, blazer and jeans and add layers of necklaces and it can make you feel amazing, set for success.”

The Downtown Chicago resident sees just two clients a month at her styling studio and is booked until fall. She said 90 percent of her clients fly into Chicago for her insights.

“I align their entire wardrobe to their mission in life,” Kogan said. “No stylist in the world is doing what I do.

“I do coaching. I go deep with each client. I shop for weeks before a photo shoot with them. I give them a rebirth. Women never feel the same after working with me.”

Kogan said she is happy to have reached the level she has with her styling work.

“Women come to me and the results are mind-blowing,” she said. “I started a movement that is changing the word. This from a little girl who could not afford to buy whatever she wanted.”

Items in the Malkari jewelry line can be found at https://www.talikogan.com/category/all-products.

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com