User:Folgatestreet2009

Roubi L’Roubi’s background matches the eclecticism of his designs.

Born into a wealthy Sudanese family, Roubi left Khartoum to study mechnical engineering at Imperial College the University of London. However, despite his father, a successful industrialist, pushing him towards becoming an engineer, Roubi rebelled and after a brief stint at high street retailer Next, enrolled on a management training programme at IKEA.

Independence meant exactly that – and left to fend for himself Roubi quickly rose through the scheme, before graduating to help run London based; Italian design company Oggetti. Charged with selling 20th-century classics – the shop helped put Allessi on the UK design map – this provided the perfect springboard to move into fashion as a part-time sales assistant at fashion store Joseph.

And within a short period Roubi was retail manager of the whole Joseph retail outlets, acting as Joseph Ettedgui’s right-hand man. Still only in his twenties, Roubi was already making his mark within London’s tight-knit fashion community.

A chance encounter in a Joe's cafe on Sloane Street, London, led to Tomasz Starzewski inviting Roubi to become equal partner in his eponymous design house. Roubi leapt at the chance to apply his business and marketing brain to a small but increasingly influential fashion company, which at its height dressed Princess Diana and Lady Thatcher.

Three years working closely alongside Tomasz in every aspect of the business left Roubi with the taste to strike out on his own. Starting with just one corset and one skirt – but with superlative contacts among London’s fashion press - in 2004 Roubi L’Roubi, a bespoke couture house for men and women, was born.