Style Road Trip

New York, New York, here they are--12 extraordinary entrepreneurs from Afghanistan in town for a three-week training program.

The Philadelphia Inquirer called it a "mixed American holiday with business boot-camp. The women attended classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, got a bird's-eye view of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building, and scoped out such American consumer temples as Target and ABC Carpet."

"Our goal isn't to show you how to make Western clothing. Our goal is to show you how the world views quality when it comes to clothing and home accessories. If you choose to embrace these standards, you must also inject 'Afghan soul' into everything you produce. In this way you will encourage the people of Afghanistan to 'Be Afghan. Buy Afghan.' and create and keep jobs in your country."
--Toni in her opening remarks to the Style Road Trip ladies

Our jet lagged yet bright-eyed Afghan associates assembled in a conference room in the Empire State Building through Women for Afghan Women's (WAW) connections with the New York Foundation. What a glorious start to their three weeks. After Toni and Gwendy set the theme of the Style Road Trip program, Kate gave our ladies a quick lesson in networking; Athena inoculated the concept of the "Success Map;" Jamie assessed their expectations; and WAW's Sunita Mehta facilitated an honest discussion on the women role models in their lives. And that was all in one morning.

Lest anyone think we were rigid taskmasters their first day, we then swept the ladies up to the top of the Empire State Building, followed by a rainy-day tour of Manhattan with their own private bus and tour guide.

While visiting Ground Zero, the ladies discussed the horror of the loss of lives and expressed sadness for the American deaths and said that that tragedy made the world aware of Afghanistan and the nightmare Afghans were living through.

That evening, Susan picked up where Jamie left off that morning, discussing their expectations for the Style Road Trip program. They ended the long day with their first American pizza (at their request). The Häagen-Dazs dixie cups were a bigger hit.

Suria, Gwendy, Merhia, Cindy and Dana on top of the world, and on top of the Empire State Building during their first full day in New York.

Joan Volpe head of the Fashion Institute of Technology's (FIT) Professional Studies program welcomed the Style Road Trip ladies to their 9-days of training during the 21-day style Road Trip. "We've picked from our jewel box of classes and instructors, just for you."

First day: fabrics...how to know them, how to pick them.

Rangina strikes a familiar pose.

On their way to class at FIT.

Rahima on 7th Avenue.

Draping class at FIT.

Learning about fabrics their first day at FIT. Lack of access to good quality and natural fibers is a real barrier to producing better quality products in Afghanistan.

At FIT, examining what makes an antique textile so valuable.

FIT color class.

The Memorial Day parade in Irvington, New York brought tears to the crowd. The Mayor welcomed the ladies, everyone clapped, a song was sung for them, everyone cried.

After lunch they went to Flying Fingers, the most famous yarn shop in the world, where the ladies had a marvelous visit--lots of questions ranging from how much rent do you pay? How did you finance the start-up of your business? And comments about design, wool yarn etc---talk talk talk talk. Then the flying fingers owners allowed each woman to pick out three items as gifts (yarn, needles). Elise said it was so interesting to see what they chose, the glittery flashier stuff!

Then to Laurie’s house for a Memorial Day BBQ. The women were very relaxed and hanging and chatting and eating. Then, the requisite Frisbee game which broke the hearts of the Bpeacers…..watching the younger Afghan women so free, playing for at least an hour at something they could never do at home.

In Laurie's backyard for the big BBQ.

This is right before the ladies started crying, realizing that Memorial Day is about remembering the dead, and questioning why in Afghanistan they don't remember their battle dead as well.

Irvington, New York had some very special visitors to its Memorial Day parade.

Afghanistan is land locked. Not a problem for the mermaids in all of us. The Atlantic Ocean at Robert Moses State Park on Long Island worked its magic on our ladies.

"The color and the feel of the ocean was a special event for me. The natural feeling of the high sea, the endless sea. It made me feel free and relaxed."
--Mahbooba

Laurie and Athena do a little coaxing.

So this is the ocean!

Afghanistan mermaids taste the Atlantic Ocean.

The CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) arranged for the ladies to meet Behnaz Sarafpour at her design studio.

From Business Week: "For 20-year-old Palwasha (above left), the trip to the hot young designer's studio is the highlight of the day. Born in Iran, Sarafpour is petite, soft spoken, and speaks Farsi, as do almost all of the women. Dressed casually in jeans, she connects with and stirs the women, most of whom are also in the clothing business and can understand at least some of the business challenges she had to surmount. Sarafpour talks about how she derives inspiration from around the world, how she chooses fabric, and how she ensures that the factories don't make mistakes when translating her designs. "I make sure my trusted seamstress makes the first dress that can act as a sample for the factory," says Sarafpour. The tips are invaluable for these women, and Sarafpour is an inspiration for Palwasha, who hopes to go to design school one day. "I don't know how I will do it, but I want to learn to design," says Palwasha, who supervises the clothing production for the Kabul office of Tarsian & Blinkley, a high-end clothing company founded by designer Sarah Takesh, whose work features Afghan artisanship."

At their visit to fashion designer Cynthia Steffe (center), the ladies learned about selling ideas, not just products.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: "At Public School 3 in Greenwich Village, the women read passages from a book of Afghan folk tales, A Key to the Heart, that included drawings from the children at the school. It was the first time the children had heard the Dari language. The children at P.S. 3 have raised $50,000 since Sept. 11, 2001, through dance-athons and other events. The money allowed a school in Afghanistan's Ghazni province to reopen."

"I noticed their are almost no children on the streets of New York. I think this is a good thing, it means parents are keeping them safe and teaching them good behavior. This is important because they are the future makers."
--Hanifa (In Afghanistan, kidnapping is rampant, children being sold for body parts or as slave labor.)

“There was almost an audible sigh of relief when we brought the women to PS 3. They missed their children and relished being around young ones again.”
--Jamie, Bpeace member

Bpeacers had this idea...invite retailers to advise the women in all Bpeace programs, across all regions. With some help from Ellen and others, Kate assembled an impressive group of retailers and convened them at their first Bpeace Retail Advisory Board (RAB) meeting to review the Afghan products our ladies produce.

At the first RAB meeting were: David Duplantis and Jennifer Houck from Coach, an accessories company; Lucy Eustice, Monica Zwirner and Patricia Marando of MZWallace, a womens accessories company; Roberta Freymann from the womens apparel and home accessories company of the same name in Manhattan; Annette Azan of IN, a womens apparel shop located in Nyack, NY; and Carin van der Donk of the NYC children's store, Sons and Daughters.

The Bpeace Retail Advisory Board and the Style Road Trip associates at dinner at the Salmagundi Club.

The first meeting of Bpeace's new Retail Advisory Board focused on the products of our Style Road Trip ladies.

How exactly do you make the stitches this small?

Bpeace makes a three-year commitment to each Afghan woman in our program. In addition to the 12 women who came to New York for the Style Road Trip, there are another 10 Afghan women in the Bpeace program.

Each entrepreneur has at least one Bpeace mentor and in some cases, a team of mentors. While the relationships took root in-person in New York, they will grow through phone calls and emails to Kabul, Kandahar and Herat over the next few years.

Gwendy and Nasima.

Nasima's silk scarves are a big hit with New Yorkers. She sold 20 of them during the Style Road Trip. Silk is re-emerging as a tiny industry in Afghanistan. Nasima hope to add some new colors and simple embroidery to her line after being inspired by store site-visits.

Jamie and Laila.

Laila is typical of the women in our program--she works multiple jobs, as the Kabul program manager for Bpeace and Women for Afghan Women, while also running a jewelry store with her husband.

From Business Week: "I want to empower my economy. I don't have a house in Kabul. I need a house for my children so that they will have a good future," she says. To that end, Laila hopes to increase her business by opening up a number of shops in Kabul and in the other provinces, as well as to export internationally. "I want to have a store at the Kabul airport," she says. She also intends to open up a jewelry-making school in order to create more jobs and business.

Tara, Palwasha and Jim. Palwasha is currently head of quality control for Sarah Takesh, a fashion designer in Kabul. Palwasha would like to study in order to become a fashion designer in her own right.

Athena, along with Kate, mentors Rangina.

Rangina manages more than 300 women in Kandahar who produce elegant hand embroidery which won much admiration (and a few small contracts) while she was in New York.

From Business Week: "While in New York, Rangina, 29, hopes to learn skills that will enable her to develop a comprehensive business plan, to learn more about design, and gain skills necessary to open her business to international markets for her collective's products. "With the Bpeace [program,] we can learn how to build independent businesses and stand on our two feet," she says. Although only at the beginning stage, Rangina wants to be able to help as many women as she can gain economically viable skills. Already she has seen the positive impact that women-owned businesses can make. "There's one woman working for me who has 13 daughters and one son. In our society boys are preferred. But the son is spoiled, and the husband is old and sits and does nothing," Rangina recounts. "This woman and eight of her daughters work for us," she continues. "They're able to buy food, medicine, shoes, and provide for the needs of the house. Now it's the girls who are seen as economic contributors. It increases their value in the household. This has helped the men to see that women can be providers, too."

Maureen, Asemat and Parinaz. Asemat manages young women who crochet, but is also interested in starting a recycled paper factory.

Asemat lives in Herat, and we hope will play an important role in teaching women outside of Kabul what she learned during the Style Road Trip.

Each of the Afghan women in the Bpeace program has made a commitment to teach others in her country. We call it the multiplier effect.

Laura, Suria and Ellen.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Suria, 51, had watched helplessly as mujaheddin guerrillas put a gun to her head and dragged her husband out of their home 26 years ago. She says they killed him because he continued to work for the government even after the Soviets took over. They also said he wasn't faithful to Islam. "I kept showing them the Koran and saying we are believers, but they closed the Koran and took him," she said, nearing tears. Today, she runs a company that sells crocheted baby clothing and employs 15."

While in New York, Ellen introduced Suria to a children's boutique, and the owner has contracted with Suria for several samples.

Latifa and Marie translating Latifa's concept for a dress line into a Success Map and 100 Day Plan. They were drawn to each other after Marie gave a marketing workshop, focusing on the difference between functional needs and emotional needs of customers.

"In order to compete, we need better quality raw materials in Afghanistan. We have seen fabrics and colors here that are simply not available to us. And we also need Bpeace's help in transporting products. Transportation is too expensive for us," said Latifa.

Baktnizar operates a dress shop in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her mentor Annette owns a dress shop in Nyack, New York.

From Business Week: "During the Taliban years, Baktnizar, 28, supported her husband and four children in rural Lagman province by embroidering, working until midnight on most days. After the Taliban was overthrown, the family moved to Kabul where she earned her teaching degree and taught Pashto part-time, making $50 a month. "It was not enough," she says. "I thought if I had my own business we'd be able to do better. I was always interested in clothing and design, and it was something I knew how to do." The enterprising seamstress joined the Afghan Women Business Assn. and met up with Bpeace members who arrived in the country in 2004. They helped her apply for a CARE International grant to support her business idea. Today, Baktnizar operates a ready-to-wear shop, Khaber Khush, which means "good news," in Kabul, overseeing 36 employees and earning three times as much as she did as a teacher. With her affiliation with Bpeace and her participation in the Style Road Trip, Baktnizar hopes to learn about Western markets and tastes to be able to export, improve quality control, and to find better raw materials to work with. Eventually, she wants to open a chain of stores with locations in every province in Afghanistan. "If you're going to have goals and dreams," she says. "They might as well be big."

Donna with Hanifa.

Hanifa has family both in Afghanistan and Canada (as do many Afghans). She has learned the hard way to ask for deposits when people place big orders. A non-Afghan ordered 300 bookmarks embroidered with crosses, and never picked them up. Amongst other things, Bpeace is trying to find a buyer for her inventory.

Mary, along with Toni, mentors Rahima.

After only a week in New York, Rahima broke her wrist, and had to have surgery to set it properly. While Bpeace and WAW volunteers rallied around her to make sure she was comfortable, Rahima herself was grace under fire personified. "God willed that I should see what an American hospital is like." We're happy to say she brought home a very favorable impression of NYU Hospital and the New York medical establishment.

Peggy (along with Sue from New Zealand) mentors Mahbooba.

From Business Week: "For 20 years, despite the restrictions and danger of punishment, Mahboba, 48, worked with other women in Kabul and Mazar al-Sharif, establishing a cooperative to develop and promote women-made handicrafts. While her husband and children fled to Pakistan, she remained in Afghanistan. It was important to her; she says to help other women. She saw great success before the Taliban took over and secretly worked with women during their rule. "I've always helped other women to learn about business." Having worked in a number of cottage industries and having aided women in various capacities to help them earn a living, Mahboba discovered that there are areas which need to be addressed if women are to become fully integrated members of business society and to advance. In a country barely out of the veil, women still do not travel freely without male relatives. This puts a limit on the ability of female entrepreneurs to conduct business. Mahboba's current goal is to open a chain of women's guesthouses across the country. "Many women travel," she says. "I want them to be in a comfortable place." Among the amenities at her guesthouses, she plans to install Internet access, beauty parlors, libraries, and an all-women's gym. "Even women who aren't staying there can use the gym two times a week."

Laurie and Mehria.

Laurie is producing a documentary about the Afghan women in the Style Road Trip. "Threads" should be released in early 2006. Mehria is not only Laurie's mentee, but also one of the camerapeople on the project, which started shooting a year ago in Kabul in June 2004.

In Kabul, Mehria is also the host of a children's program.

Ask our Afghan ladies what they still needed to shop for: Make-up, that is until they had make-overs at Estée Lauder. Above, our newly-glamed entrepreneurs with the generous
Estée Lauder team.

And ask our Afghan ladies what they wanted to eat: ice cream, ice cream, but only vanilla, please.

The ladies are ready to apply dressbarn's vision across Afghanistan, after learning about the customers, merchandising, and promotional techniques of dressbarn at a site visit in Suffern, New York and Ramsey, New Jersey arranged by Kate, who also happens to be a dressbarn Board member. The generous dressbarn executives also gave each woman a gift certificate to buy an outfit of her choice. dressbarn operates 772 stores in 44 states—the scope of which dazzled the ladies.

"There was so much to learn at dressbarn, but the ease of finding different sizes was a surprise."
--Nasima

"The entire process of dressbarn is very different for us, and very inspiring."
--Latifa

Style Road Trip ladies, dressbarn execs, and Bpeace and WAW volunteers.