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| Amin Ullah is one of a dozen tailors Hashimi employs in her hometown of Herat, Afghanistan. Mark Sappenfield |
Stitching an Afghan-American connection
How a gold brocade jacket employed a tailor in Herat and dazzled the mother of an American soldier.
from the November 1, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
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The Elegance Fashion Boutique is a splinter of a store – the front is just 6 feet wide – on King Street, a coveted stretch of brick-lined real estate in affluent Old Town Alexandria. With its cotton-candy-pink walls and rows of gowns, one customer called it Cinderella's workshop.
Hashimi came here via Hamburg, Germany, where, fleeing war, she moved from Herat with her parents when she was 16. In Hamburg she studied fashion and took to wedding dresses, a garment that leaves not even a millimeter of room for error. "I was the only girl with a lot of patience," she says. "Believe me, our work is not easy."
In 1997, Hashimi married an Afghan man whose family is in Virginia, where they settled. She searched for the right spot for a store. "Everywhere else in Virginia was so different," she says, "but Alexandria looked close to Europe to me."
Meyer first walked into the boutique with her daughter Jenny. They were there for a wedding dress. And sometime in the course of designing Jenny's custom gown, between the fittings and alterations, Meyer came across the jacket.
Jenny and her younger sister didn't love it at first, says Meyer. "But when we pulled it down and I put it on, they said, 'Wow, Mom. That's really beautiful.' "
Meyer knows the material, some of the finest Hashimi could find in Herat, came from Dubai. But Hashimi suspects it may have been made in Korea.
Yet there was more to it than its beauty.
"We were also so moved by her story," says Meyer. "Here I see Roya trying to bring freedom and possibility to women in Afghanistan," she continues. "We are great patriots.... My son is over there fighting for their freedom, and ours."
The jacket is a way for Meyer to support Hashimi, to be a part of her story. But it provides something more literal as well, something tangible that she can run her fingers over, that makes her feel connected to her son.
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When Hashimi returned to Herat in April, for the first time in 24 years, she set up a small factory in the back of the 70-year-old family home that her parents recently returned to. She hired 15 locals – including Ullah. But her timing was off. She missed the dress-buying peak for summer weddings. So far she has only sold 10 of the 100 pieces, priced between $350 and $1,300.
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