Spy-turned-sex symbol Anna Chapman has described to Forbes magazine how her deportation from the United States clad only in a prison uniform inspired her to set up her own clothing business in Russia.
“I couldn't even buy myself clothes when I ended up in Russia. When they deported me from American I was just in prison clothing,” Chapman told Forbes in an interview published Monday.
“Before they let me out of the plane they gave me a passport in an envelope. That's everything I had. Moreover, I was 28 and some of my things had been very expensive, one dress cost several hundred thousand rubles,” she said, adding that she now throws out her entire wardrobe once a year.
Redhead Chapman shot to international celebrity overnight when she was exposed as a Russian sleeper agent in the U.S. and returned to Russia in a dramatic 2010 spy swap.
A patriotic clothing business has been just one of her business endeavors since then — she has also posed in a racy photo shoot for men's magazine Maxim and held a senior position at a top Russian bank.
The main outlet for Chapman's eponymous clothing brand is a shop owned by the former spy in Moscow's art cluster Flacon. Her line is also available in shops in Moscow, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg and the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.
“I produce the industrial components inside my country, give work to my fellow countrymen, [and] my team and I underline Russia's cultural inheritance in design,” Chapman said, Forbes reported.
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