For Teejays, everything changed in Paris

Feeha Jamshed talks about losing her sister, her inspiration.

KARACHI:

Her sister taught her to wear red lipstick and gave her a ‘sense of style’.  With Minnaal’s death, Feeha Jamshed says she has lost her inspiration.

This interview was not supposed to be about Minnaal Jamshed’s death. But sitting at her house in Hill Park, the Creative Director of her father’s retail brand Teejays only wants to talk about her elder sister and best friend. For Feeha, Minnaal, who had “perfect hair and a perfect face”, defined beauty.

Minnaal, 32, died under mysterious circumstances in France on July 1 this year.  “Sadly, there is a misconception in people’s mind that Minnaal’s death occurred due to bulimia. She did suffer from an eating disorder, but that was anorexia nervosa and it did not kill her,” says the 27-year-old fashion designer.  “She was a fighter and had recovered from her illness seven months back.”

“My mother reported her missing after she went for coffee to a café downstairs and did not return home for a few hours. Five days later, the French police recovered her decomposed body from River Seine,” recalls Feeha, adding, “The police gave my mother the taweez that Minnaal used to wear … that’s how we came to know she had died.”

“There were marks of injury on her forehead. She was probably trying to defend herself,” she says. With investigations still in progress, Feeha did not want to share more details, but spoke about her mother’s courage. “My mother is the epitome of patience. She dealt with this tragedy alone.”

Feeha’s mother was living with Minnaal in Paris, where she had been treated for her eating disorder. “She wanted to live. She fought for her life and taught me a lot. If I was told to describe life, I would say ‘Minnaal’. Generally, people get embarrassed and shrug off their problems, but I want young girls to understand that only you can help yourself.” A number of thoughts go through Feeha’s mind about what could have happened. Minnaal never liked the Eiffel Towers. She would never go near that place, her sister says.

Ever since Feeha was three years old, she knew she would take the legacy of Teejays forward. Her father would say she should launch her own brand “Feejays”.

It was in the 1970s that her father, Tanvir Jamshed, launched the retail brand. “We were the first ones to introduce a unisex collection in Pakistan. It was during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime. During General Ziaul Haq’s era we stopped making clothes for women because we always made shalwar-kameez without a dupatta.  Our concept was, ‘downsize your wardrobe’.”

The “awami” dress was never considered an elitist wardrobe, but Teejays made that possible, she says.

Feeha designs clothes for women of all body shapes. “Women with eating disorders do not love themselves and think they are ruefully fat. But they must love themselves; I want them to love themselves.”





Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2011.