 Bibi Russel was the first woman from
Bangladesh to study at the London College of Fashion. When she graduated in 1975
she modeled her own graduation show, she was immediately offered modelling assignments
with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani and appeared in Vogue, Haper's
Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. From these beginnings she established herself as one
of the world's leading models. In 1990 she returned to Dhaka to realise a long held ambition to build an
international reputation for locally crafted textiles by promoting traditional Bangladeshi
fabrics, Khadi and Jamdani. In recent years she has worked in Europe and Bangladesh using
culture and creativity of her fashion designs to elevate the image of Bangladesh. Her work
has revived the hand loom weaving industry in Bangladesh.
Operating under the slogan of Fashion for
Development she has demonstrated how local weavers and artisans can use their skills to
achieve economic stability. Bibi Productions has provided work for 35,000 weavers and with
the support of UNESCO has staged three major shows in Europe. The most recent of these was
Stars of Bangladesh which was presented jointly with the British Fashion Council during
London Fashion Week in September 1998.
Bibi Russell became a Fellow of the London
Institute in 1999 |
