PLAYING BARBIE IN TEHRAN
TALA RAASSI, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MISS UNIVERSE BIKINIS, STARTED OFF HER FASHION CAREER DRESSING UP HER BARBIES IN IRAN.
When she was little, Tala Raassi used to make clothes for her Barbies. But there was always one problem.
“I always felt like they needed more fabric,” recalls Tala of growing up in Iran, where strict Islamic laws mean ‘indecent clothing’ is illegal. Barbies are banned as they’re said to depict women in a bad light, so Tala used to collect them when she travelled abroad.
“I dressed like any teenager would, except we had to completely cover up in public,” she says.
“However, I kept getting in trouble at school for the type of shoes I wore or the backpacks I carried.”
But even under one of the world’s most brutal regimes, Tala and her other friends still oozed sophistication. Sunglasses and scarves from trendy boutiques in the capital Tehran were must-have accessories.
“Girls in Iran are very creative with the little fashion freedom they have,” Tala says.
“I always felt that the streets of Tehran looked like a fashion show.
“Iranian women actually wear so much make-up because their face is one of the only things shown in public.
“They can also be very creative with their chadors (the traditional long black robe covering the body from head to toe), especially the younger women.”
However, the more fashion-conscious Tala became, the more she earned the wrath of her parents.
She went on thinking she would become a lawyer – “There were only certain occupations suitable for a woman” – but one night in 1998 altered her path.
Arriving at a friend’s birthday party wearing the compulsory uniform, a scarf covering her hair, a black coat, and trousers underneath her skirt, once inside she threw her outfit aside, revealing a black t-shirt and miniskirt.
It wasn’t long into the celebrations that the religious police came knocking on the door, informing Tala and her 30 friends that they had broken the law for not being dressed properly. (They had also committed the crimes of listening to music not approved by the government and having a party with members of the opposite sex). It would later turn out that a friend, who had not been invited to join in the festivities, had reported them.
A police chase around the neighbourhood ensued, before the group was handcuffed and taken to the local prison.
After five days of sleeping on the floor in a squalid jail they were taken to the courtroom and sentenced to be lashed.
The women received 40 strikes, while the men were forced to endure 50 each. Tala’s family waited outside the room of the prison during her punishment, which lasted ten minutes.
“I do still think of what happened to us,” is all she will say when broached on the subject today.
“I think about the woman that go through similar things all the time.”
“I am who I am today because of what happened and I am putting it to good use.”
Despite throwing herself into her studies following her persecution, Tala was still struggling emotionally months later. After graduation, she decided a change of scenery would be good, so she went to Dubai to stay with friends.
Although Islamic dress code is not compulsory there, Tala saw sophisticated women who wanted to wear the traditional abaya, “expressing themselves beautifully”.
“They looked so much more powerful than the women who were forced by law to wear something they didn’t want to,” she recalls.
“Next to them, you would also see other women from the same region in other beautiful dresses and clothes.
“I realized then that I wanted to design clothing that would make women feel free, empowered, and beautiful.”
But upon her move to the US, her birth country, to pursue her new ambition, she ironically found the ‘flip flops, shorts and t-shirt style’ she constantly saw uninspiring.
“To me, women in the States don’t express their fashion sense and freedom as much as they could,” she says.
But getting her clothes stocked in boutiques across the US (Los Angeles, Miami and San Diego) as well as Dubai wasn’t easy. She had to master pattern making and learn how to run a business. However the biggest hurdle was learning English.
She began traveling to find inspiration and it was a Sao Paolo Fashion Week trip that inspired her to design swimsuits for women of different shapes, to make “all kinds of women feel sexy”
Her Dar Be Dar collection, consisting of triangle and strapless bikinis along with one-piece costumes, launched a year ago.
The title means ‘Door to door in Persian’ and is slang for someone who is all over the place to reflect her globetrotting lifestyle.
When her representative approached the Miss Universe officials about sponsorship earlier this year, they had already read her story in the local press and thought it would fit well with the contest’s aim to “empower young women”.
It was a race against time, but in two months she made 400 bikinis. More then 90 girls in the Miss Universe pageant sported her designs on stage at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Centre.
“I respect the women entering these pageants,” Tala says.
“They work hard for it. I think very highly of people that follow their dreams and do not take their freedom for granted.”
She is now working hard on her next project, her Lipstick Revolution t-shirt collection, inspired by Iran’s revolutionary movement. It will be released in spring/summer 2011, with all the profits donated to her charity. She hasn’t ruled out trying to have her swimsuits stocked in Iran.
“Fashion is not everything, there is so much to this world,” she says.
“But I believe fashion is something simple that helps people express their individuality and makes them feel good about themselves.
“When I got persecuted for wearing a mini-skirt, I started thinking of it as freedom. I realised fashion served a purpose for me – it made me feel free.”
To find out more see www.darbedar.net
Words Amy Fallon
