Episode: 17 — "Spend More, Buy Less" · Full Episode #17
Date: 18 February 2020
Language: Libyan Arabic, English code-switching
Audio: MP3
Ibrahim Shebani (إبراهيم الشيباني) is a Libyan fashion designer and the founder of "Born in Exile," a ready-to-wear brand. He grew up between Germany, Egypt, and Libya — his father moved the family repeatedly. The 2011 revolution displaced him again, through Tunisia, Malta, and Egypt. He studied fashion in Florence. His first investor was his nephew, Nabeel.
The brand name was autobiographical. Ibrahim was born in Germany in the 1980s to a Libyan family living abroad. He moved to Egypt, then to Libya, then was displaced again after 2011. The name captured a condition he had never stopped living. It was not a marketing concept. It was a statement of fact.
See: Born in Exile
After displacement, Ibrahim enrolled in a fashion course in Florence. Italy gave him proximity to the garment industry and to the European vintage market. He developed a philosophy around vintage clothing — the idea that older garments carried more craft, better materials, and a slower relationship to time than anything produced by fast fashion.
Ibrahim described garment tags in Istanbul that read: "This was produced by me, but I wasn't paid for it." The tags were placed inside clothing by the workers who made them — invisible protests sewn into the seams. He used this image to frame his critique of fast fashion's human cost: the price on the label bears no relationship to the cost of making it.
See: The Unpaid Tag
He spoke about traditional Libyan textiles — the craftsmanship embedded in garments that predated mass production. He saw his work as a bridge between that heritage and contemporary design. Not nostalgia. Continuity.
His first investor was not a fund or a bank. It was his nephew Nabeel, who believed in the project before anyone else did. Ibrahim named him directly and with gratitude.
The brand is called "Born in Exile" because that is what happened. (EP 17)