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Bibi
Russell Weaver
of Coloured Dreams
Kajalie Shehreen Islam
If
there is one thing that sets Bibi Russell apart from
everyone around her, it is her sense of individuality.
Her bright colours and array of jewellery, from bangles
to nose ring, are bound to turn heads in any room she
enters, and draw a mixed reaction of awe and appreciation
for her unique and artistic taste in dressing and the
way in which she carries herself. Even the tea in her
rather artistically decorated office in Motijheel is
served innovatively, in small glasses with something
akin to saree paars in different colours wrapped
around them. But posted on the walls of her office are
not pictures of Bibi Russell, model for Vogue and Armani
which once had made international headlines, but "Bibi
Apa", surrounded by children and the weavers with
whom she shares her life.
Bibi
is the third of five children of the Late Mukhlesur
Rahman and Shamsunnahar Rahman, more commonly known
as Sadhu Bhai and Rose Apa, who were devoted to cultural
activities. "I am who I am and where I am today
because of my parents," says Bibi.
Bibi
was born in Chittagong and brought up in Dhaka and considers
herself to be a daughter of Bangladesh. A student of
Kamrunnesa School and later the Home Economics College
in Dhaka, Bibi was never an academic, unlike her siblings.
"I only studied to pass," she says simply.
"I
liked to draw," says Bibi, "and as a child
when I saw many villagers come to our home, I would
admire the
bright and beautiful colours they would wear in their
sarees and gamchhas and I would ask my father
why I needed to go to school to learn things when these
people could be so artistic naturally."
The
vivacious 5'10" model-to-be was more interested
in cutting up vegetables and cooking, in block printing
and sewing. She had her own sewing machine when she
was ten years old and used to make her own dresses which
she knew weren't all that great, but gave her the satisfaction
of having made something all by herself.
Bibi had a wonderful
childhood, surrounded by music, art and culture. She
considers it only natural to have had an interest in
fashion and culture when she was exposed to everything,
from books and music by Rabindranath Tagore to Chanel
magazines. "When I saw the fashions in these magazines,
I felt like, why shouldn't I be able to make my own?"
But you don't realise
your dream overnight, says Bibi, and for her it took
twenty years. Discovering her interest in fashion, she
went abroad and earned her graduate degree in Fashion
Design at the London College of Fashion. At art schools,
you have to exhibit your work at your graduation, says
Bibi, and at her own graduation show in 1975, she displayed
ten of her own designs, modelling the first and last
herself at the insistence of one of her teachers. She
started getting important modelling offers right after
that and designers and agencies were curious about the
model who started her work with Bazaar assignments and
took her on themselves.
For
the first five years, Bibi did photo modelling for different
magazines including Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Harper's
Bazaar and later went onto the ramps. For almost twenty
years, she worked with leading designers like Yves Saint
Laurent, Kenzo, Karl Lagerfield and Giorgio Armani and
"almost became the face of the Emporio Armani range"
writes Jeena Mitra Banik in "Being Bibi",
a piece in Femina. She walked the ramp with
models like Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Kate
Moss and "snagged prestigious campaigns like Rolls
Royce, Jaguar, BMW, Toyota, Vidal Sassoon, John Freida,
Harvey Nichols and Fila, among others," continues
Banik.
In 1994, Bibi came back
to Bangladesh to fulfil her dream -- of promoting her
own country's beauty and the work of its people to the
world. "People say Bangladesh is poor," says
Bibi, "I only see its richness of culture, and
paint a picture of beauty from the poverty."
For the first two years,
Bibi -- fluent in Italian and comfortable with Spanish,
French and German (besides Bangla and English) -- mainly
travelled around villages and got to know the people
there. She learnt their different languages and dialects,
their ways of life, and earned their trust. She also
had to learn the tools of the trade here as opposed
to the modern technology she had learnt abroad. She
established Bibi Productions and from the colours weaved
by the villagers, she reached out to the world.
Her
first European show was in Paris in February 1996, and
was called "Weavers of Bangladesh", organised
together with UNESCO. Her second show titled "The
Colours of Bangladesh" was also with UNESCO a year
later and, launched and supported by the Queen of Spain,
was held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. In September 1998,
with support from UNESCO and the British Fashion Council,
Bibi brought her third show to London, called "Stars
of Bangladesh". In 1998, Bibi made her US debut
at the closing ceremony of the State of the World Forum.
Last year, she designed costumes for a film for the
first time -- Dwitiya Paksha, an Indian film
that was screened at the Dhaka International Film Festival
last month.
The
Paris show brought in orders that gave work to 30,000
weavers in Bangladesh, said UNESCO's Sayeeda Rahman
at the time, who was coordinating the organisation's
involvement in the microfinance programme. The huge
response showed that it was obviously working. It was
difficult for the weavers who lived
in villages to make goods according to the tastes of
the people, not to mention at a global level. With Bibi's
inspiration and guidance, they finally had the ideas
and the platform to market their products.
Bibi's
campaigns, "Fashion for Development" and "Positive
Bangladesh" clearly describe her purpose of lifting
the products of the weavers of Bangladesh working at
a ground level into the mainstream.
"Fashion
is a part of culture," says Bibi, "and textiles
are a part of the history of Bangladesh." Bibi
believes that the country can never come out of poverty
if the economic situation of the villagers does not
improve. "I cannot tell my weavers to send their
children to school without first ensuring they have
work from which to earn a living, which will first feed
them and their children."
Foreign journalists come to film
her work here and want to edit out the parts with children
working, fearing it will ruin her image, says Bibi,
but she won't allow it. "I am also against child
labour," she says, "but I have young children
working for me because it is like a school where they
learn the art of weaving. The next generation of weavers
will be educated," she promises. The talented hard-working
weavers of the villages would be geniuses if they had
only one-third of her education and training, Bibi believes.
Bibi currently has over 35,000
weavers all over Bangladesh (excepting only Kuakata,
she admits) working for her. "But it's not even
one tenth of the people I want to reach," she says.
There are ten lakh weavers themselves, she says, not
to mention spinners and those who dye and so on. "If
you can help one weaver, you help a whole family,"
she says.
The
love and affection of the villagers she works with are
her real incentives, says Bibi. "It is priceless,
and nothing -- no amount of money or riches -- can ever
take me away from them." When she goes to the villages,
as she often does, she stays with them
in their homes and they pamper
her with love, she says. Europe has given her all the
fame and fortune she could have, but she came back to
Bangladesh for the people, especially for the village
people, says Bibi. She came back for their work and to
help them and the traditional art of weaving survive in
not only the national but a global market. Using fashion,
Bangladesh is sure to get "up there" one day,
is Bibi's firm belief.
Her company, Bibi Productions, produces everything
hand-made, from a range of apparel to shoes, buttons,
jewellery and even home furnishings.
She does a spring-summer and fall-winter collection
each year to keep up with the global market, but 90
percent of her work is to do with textile design, she
says. She works with cotton, khadi, silk, amdani
and a lot of jute. For the last two years, she has also
been experimenting with crochet. She first makes the
textile, and after seeing the outcome -- of the texture,
colours and so on -- she decides on what is to be made
from it. She only wishes there were proper research
facilities for textile designing. All her ingredients
are from the villages and she never changes the traditional
ways of weaving, says Bibi. She also does not use any
chemicals that are not internationally approved. She
takes extreme care with her products and says proudly
that not one piece has ever been sent back from her
foreign clientele. She designs for them keeping in mind
a number of factors, including their climate, their
tastes and their social bindings. Bibi Productions exports
to Europe and Scandinavia, and though it does not have
its own outlet in Dhaka, the newly-opened Essentials
in Banani displays some of the products. There is something
for everyone in her collection, says Bibi, whether you
have 10 Taka, 100 Taka or 1000 Taka to spend.
Bibi Productions is a small, self-funded organisation,
says its owner. Bibi has a team of twenty dedicated
people working for her in Dhaka besides the thousands
of villagers and a number of rickshaw painters. Commitment
to the cause is all she looks for in a prospective employee
and never at their résumé. She doesn't
have the money or the time to advertise. She simply
moves forward with her purpose.
Bibi has received both national and international awards
for her work with the artisans and weavers in Bangladesh
as well as those in India, Africa and Latin America.
She was declared "Woman of the Year" by Elle
Magazine in 1997, honoured with an "Honorary Fellowship"
of the London Institute in 1999, and was declared "Entrepreneur
Woman of the Year" by the Foundation of Entrepreneur
Women in the same year. She has also been highlighted
by Asia Week Magazine as "one of the 20 people
to watch in the millennium". Also in 1999, Bibi
Russell was named "UNESCO Special Envoy: Designer
for Development." UNESCO Director General Federico
Mayor gave her the title "in recognition of her
commitment to the welfare of weavers of Bangladesh and
her devotion to the promotion of traditional crafts
in the cause of human dignity, development and eradication
of poverty". Bibi has recently been made a Creative
Member of the Club of Budapest and of the Global Marshall
Plan Initiative with the vision of implementing a global
eco-social development plan.
Bibi
Russell, international model and fashion entrepreneur
with many titles to her name, has little left to achieve
for herself in the way of fame and riches. Yes, one
day, she hopes to stage a show with the colours of monsoon,
her favourite green (which as yet does not come out
quite right!). Other than that, she is extremely satisfied
with her life and her work, having achieved much mental
peace and satisfaction. She has little time for anything
else.
She has two sons and seven street children whom she
calls her own. They sell flowers on the streets and
come to visit once a week. Bibi loves all sorts of music
which is always on around her, and reads whenever she
has the time. Besides that, she has only her dream to
continue to fulfil -- to enrich the lives of the weavers
of Bangladesh and expose the beauty of their work for
the world to see. Besides style, positivity is what
distinguishes Bibi Russell. And anyone who has had a
talk with her is certain to be themselves inspired to
think positive and to "go for their dream".
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