The second part of the interview with Belkis Bakharsiyeva, a Chechen designer currently working in Germany under the trademark "Zabbari"
- What does "Zabbari" mean? Why didn't you use your own name as a trademark like all designers do?
- Zabbari is an ancient name meaning "cheerful". Can you imagine a girl so modest, that she never leaves home, to name a trade mark after herself? A girl who never attends a wedding ceremony for she is very modest? A girl who doesn't put her own signature by herself, but asks her brother to do it? A girl who doesn't buy her cloth by herself? That's all about me. I was brought up as a very modest girl.
- Why did you decide to become a designer?
- Confucius once said: "find a job you will like and won't have to work". I do what I like. I adore my job. I can forget about everything when I work, about food, about sleep. I cannot live without my work.
- What's the European attitude to traditional Muslim cloth?
- In Europe people have tired of glamorously dressed women. More and more designers nowadays are interested in Eastern modesty. Many designers who presented their cloth during London Fashion Week do now prefer Fashion Week in Dubai.
- Can a high-necked dress look elegant and charming?
- It most certainly can! As a child and a young girl I used to wear cloth common in those days USSR. In college I designed common Europeancloth and eventually I got tired of it. I want something new; I am seek and tired of almost naked people. That is why I am interested in oriental clothes.
- And what about Russia? By the way, do you consider Russia your home country?
- Of course, I do! I wish that Russian women would stop wearing overly luxurious clothes, brilliants, stop having their hair coloured in an unnatural colour. Such style common to the republics of the former USSR is ridiculed in Europe. Modesty is much more interesting, elegant and charming.
Interview by Olesya Pelageina. Exclusively to VK
