By Lisa Tsering

India-West, Nov. 1998

SAN FRANCISCO — Bibi Russell's vibrant, colorful brand of handloomed Bangladeshi fashion has already stormed Europe to impressive media acclaim: she was the first designer from the developing world to participate in September's London Fashion Week, and Harrod's department store will be featuring her designs in the coming season.

Russell made a victorious U.S. debut Nov. 1 at the closing ceremonies of the State of the World Forum, a six-day gathering of activists and global decision makers (In the coming weeks, India-West will profile several of the prominent South Asians who attended the Forum). At the Forum, Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, who died in July, was awarded posthumously for establishing Pakistan's Human Development Center. His widow, Khadija Haq, accepted the award on his behalf.

Vogue and Women's Wear Daily were among the media present at Bibi Russell's San Francisco show, catapulting Russell's village-made designs into the international arena.

Bibi Productions, the company Russell founded, is about more than rich textiles and luxe embroidery — the 35,000 weavers and tailors it employs are an inspiring example of micro-financing.

"Culture and creativity is linked to development," Russell told India-West after the show. "All the fabric you saw today was woven in the villages; all the shoes, even the buttons, were handmade by villagers."

Young Bangladeshi models strutted to folk songs and ghazals before a backdrop draped in handloomed Bangla silk sarees at the San Francisco show. Sporty looks — loose hooded silk shirts over khadi-inspired pants, and whimsical village getups — vied for attention with graceful skirts tied with yards of multi-textured silk.A white wedding dress, shown with stylized Hindu wedding headgear and a sheer veil inventively tied at the shoulders, drew cheers and gasps from the audience.

The Chittagong-born Russell, a top model in Europe during the '70s and '80s, studied fashion design in England.

Four years ago, Russell went back to Bangladesh, and working with the Grameen Bank and others, took her skills and expertise in working in the industry in the West to reteach the weavers the skills they'd lost.

"Handloom is an old tradition in Bangladesh, going back to the Raj," Russell said. "It became a dead industry, but I want to revive it."

As her British partner, Lynne Franks of Globalfusion, Inc., described, "Due to competition from machine-made fabrics from other markets, lack of facilities, lack of training and skills, the industry has sunk very low."

But thanks to the support of the Grameen Bank, UNESCO's "Fashion for Development" program and local non-governmental organizations, "The weavers can once again make a mark on the international industry," Franks said.

In addition to her success at London Fashion Week, Russell has developed a following in France and Spain; the queen of Spain was so taken with Russell's designs that she visited Bangladesh and invited her to present a show in Madrid.

Vogue representatives at the Nov. 1 show praised the cut of her designs and her bold choice of colors. "They said the designs are traditional, but can be worn, and that the color was 'very right,' " Russell said.

With the help of Dr. Federico Mayor, secretary general of UNESCO, Russell launched a fashion show in Paris in 1996. "He gave me my first big break," Russell said.

Mayor also headed a drive to donate $25,000 to Bibi Productions' weavers after the recent floods devastated much of rural Bangladesh.

"Even though Bangladesh has a history of tremendous problems, with the poverty and the floods," said Franks, "Bibi wants to bring the joy of that culture to everybody, not only through the colors and the textiles of the garments, but also through the music and the dancing and the spirit of the young people of Bangladesh."

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