Sarah Takesh was born in Iran, lived with her family in the United States and now lives in Afghanistan. She studied architecture at Columbia University and fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York and received her MBA from University of California at Berkeley.
She is the Creative and Managing Director of Tarsian & Blinkley. The company was created by Sarah in 2003 after the successful sales of her first collection in 2002 and winning the grand prize in the National Social Venture Competition, www.socialvc.net, sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Haas and Columbia business schools.
The mission of the company is to create beautiful, novel, highly fashionable products that celebrate feminine beauty and Afghan artisanship while developing the Afghan economy and improving the lives of Afghan people. She hires hundreds of Afghan women to make the beautiful clothing that she distributes in Europe, North America, and the Pacific rim.
ExpatWomen:You run Tarsian & Blinkley from Kabul. What inspired a young woman to leave the USA and set up a business in Afghanistan?
Sarah: I always had a massive travel fetish and was always seeking out the purest experience of the exotic. It was on a trip to the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan and Western China that I found it, in 2000. Central Asia was love at first sight and I basically turned to my travel companion and said, "I want to spend the rest of my life here". Logically, it made sense to focus on the Afghans in the Northwest Frontier Territory of Pakistan because of the language thing -- I would be able to communicate with them in my native language of Farsi. I took 2 trips to these parts of Pakistan, once in 2000 and again in the summer of 2001. I showed up in business school at Berkeley and spoke about my plans to live there and set up a business. By the second week that school was in session, 9/11 happened and the rest was history. The timing of my passion for the region was uncanny.
ExpatWomen:Tell us how the business works.
Sarah: We purchase our fabrics mostly in India, though it could be purchased from anywhere. I like India because it's a a fairly accommodating country and the materials I focus on are cottage-industry products, meaning that they are made in villages, often completely by hand. It allows the craftsy characteristic of the clothes to extend from the raw materials all the way to the assembly and embellishment of the garments. Cottage industry products also better support rural life and traditional crafts. The material is imported into Afghanistan, cut, embroidered (or beaded, sequined, crocheted, etc.) and then assembled. Women earn the bulk of the value of the garment, in the form of embroidery work, which they perform at home. They collect the pieces, embellish them in whatever way they have been instructed to, and return them to the workshop. There, the pieces are assembled and sent to the sewing room to be stitched into garments. In many cases, though, we only art direct the process and the women decide the final look and feel of the embroidery work. The process can be quite collaborative.
The products are sold online, via trunk sales, and to expats at the boutiques we have in Kabul. Many times we sell to stores in the States, but I am terrible about marketing very proactively as being in Kabul bogs me down a bit too much. But by now, so many people all over the world own our things that we sell just from word of mouth. People see the clothes on other people and just email me asking how to buy.
ExpatWomen:What are some of the challenges that you have faced, as an expat and as an entrepreneur in Afghanistan?
Sarah: The government has become quite dangerous there and the police and such look at foreigners, and entrepreneurs, like walking bags of cash. They try to extort money out of you at every opportunity and it's really quite crazy how greedy they can be. Afghanistan has also become a very dangerous country in the crime sense (not terrorism), but that affects everyone, just not expats.
ExpatWomen:What have been some of your sweetest rewards?
Sarah: Seeing the people who work for me improve their standard of living dramatically. My embroiderers all have phones now, for example, whereas in 2002, most of them had nothing, not even the nerve to show their faces from behind the burka when smiling or laughing. My old assistant is actually in the US now studying on a 4-year scholarship at a fancy private university. She sent me an email the other day using the word "fabulous" very casually in a sentence.
ExpatWomen:When and why did you leave Iran with your family? Do you remember anything of your life there and do you think that influenced the business you are running today?
Sarah: We left Iran right when the Revolution there started in early 1979. Our family was not directly linked to the government, but we were basically part of the "feudal" class that was getting kicked out and would pay a very high price for it's decadent lifestyle of the past years. I grew up in the US with so many conflicting notions of who we were -- good guys or bad guys -- and didn't figure it all out until much later. I think seeing beautiful, classic Iran be devoured by a bunch of aesthetically-challenged pigheaded fundamentalist was very upsetting, but at the same time, I saw how the elitist, segregated approach to society doesn't pay either where one camp is utterly Western and antagonizes it's poorer Eastern-oriented brethen. Though Afghanistan is not my country, it was a good playing field in which to resolve some of my "issues". I could combat fundamentalism while giving power to the people, all via economic activity. Was as a good compromise.
ExpatWomen:What advice would you give expatriate women living in developing countries on how they can help the local population?
Sarah: Look around you and appreciate the resources that are at your disposal -- don't spend your time hiding out in places set up for Western-style convenience. Venturing out and experimenting with local resources can be very rewarding. I could never just draw a picture and have it made up so easily in the US without spending hundreds of dollars, whereas in these countries, we have the pleasure of tapping into amazing crafts resources. We can be creatively fulfilled while also doing a lot for the local economy. All of the furniture in my office was designed by me and built by Nooristani craftsmen in Kabul. And it's a thousand times more beautifil than anything my friends have put in their homes and offices - all imported furniture from China or IKEA in Dubai!
ExpatWomen:What are your plans for the future?
Sarah: Just keep at it. I regret not having figured out a way to set up a larger marketing force for our womenswear line, but then, it's hard to be everything while situated in Kabul. We will continue to focus on manufacturing and offer our manufacturing services to others.
ExpatWomen:Thank you very much Sarah, we wish you all the very best for Tarsian & Blinkley’s continued success.
