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A Virginia Retailer's Quest

Author: Dottie Maguire
by Dottie Maguire
Posted: Mar 30, 2015

A Virginia Retailer's Quest to Make Bulletproof Clothing Look Beautiful

"Most people who walk into our shop don’t realize what’s going on back there," Abbas Haider tells me as he finishes explaining the intricacies of bulletproof underpants.

Haider is the founder of Aspetto, a custom bulletproof clothier, which he runs along with Robert Davis. The front room of their small store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is littered with silk swatches from Italy, wool remnants from leftover suiting and lists of measurements, all the makings of an old-school tailor shop. The back, however, is full of what the owners call "ballistics," but most of us would refer to it as bulletproof gear.

Haider explains that in his world, ballistics is what we civilians might call armor. He is also careful to clarify that every piece of body armor is, technically, merely bullet-resistant, not bulletproof. "Nothing in this world can be genuinely bulletproof, because there will always be something in development that can penetrate it."

While Aspetto does large contract orders for vests and shirts (small, medium and large), the company’s specialty is its high-end, custom-design work. Its products include three-piece suits, dress shirts, backpacks, helmets, traditional Middle Eastern garments and even boxer shorts, which do a very good job of protecting the femoral artery from bleeding out if shot. The clothes are often based on European runway designs, and samples are sent back and forth to get the fit right. By focusing on high fashion, Aspetto hopes to catch up to the international recognition of Miguel Caballero, a Colombian-based bulletproof clothing designer who held an all-bulletproof fashion show last year in Mexico City.

Haider and Davis say they are obsessed with making their bulletproof attire look less, well, bulletproof. Instead of sewing ballistic panels into clothing, the duo designed hidden compartments in the lining for the panels, the texture of which are reminiscent of tough sponges. The armor is zipped in and can be removed to dry-clean the garment. This design requires an extremely lightweight bulletproof material, one that was unavailable when Aspetto began, so the company partnered with Point Blank Enterprises to create a lightweight material capable of stopping handgun bullets and bomb shrapnel while zipping seamlessly into the lining of a suit. Though the material is half the weight of standard bullet-proof panels, it still meets safety standards and can fend off 9mm,.40 caliber and.45 semiautomatic rifle bullets, among many others.

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The newly improved bulletproof vest weighs less than four pounds and is one-quarter-inch thick. The stuff is also stronger than what most cops wear. "Our ballistic package exceeds the NIJ, DEA and FBI testing requirements," Haider says, referring to standards set by the National Institute of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Both Davis and Haider are understandably reluctant to discuss their dealings with the three-letter organizations, the FBI, CIA and DoD. "We are doing"—they pause to first discuss it among themselves—"some stuff with these agencies." After much badgering, they hint that their new bulletproof, fire-retardant undershirt, the ballistic outlines of which cannot be seen beneath other clothing, was of interest to "some" agencies.

While they are mum on United States government contracts, which are typically lucrative, Haider says Aspetto has picked up two government clients in the Middle East: It now dresses the security company for members of the Afghan government and some women in the Saudi Arabian royal family.

After the introduction of their lightweight ballistic material, Aspetto’s founders were approached by a representative of the Saudi royal family. Some women in the family, unnamed for their protection, were interested in purchasing dresses. The women were seeking jalabiya, also called jalabib and jalibab, a caftan-like gown that can be decorated with intricate embroidery. The jalabiya, a loose-fitting garment, has an attractive flowing characteristic Aspetto was asked to preserve. Not to stray from the family’s luxurious standards, the garment had to be made of fine, delicate silk.

"They asked us to develop some styles which integrate ballistics to protect the stomach, heart and lungs," Haider says. The process is ongoing, as samples are passed from the company to the women through an aide. "We’ve created several possibilities so far. Because it’s all silk, the protective material is almost like a tape. It holds the weight of the ballistics, but it allows the jalabiya to retain the fluid movement of silk."

For its Afghan clients, Aspetto is creating kurtas, also called a kameez, a long shirt for men that goes past the knees. "Our client trains local law enforcement in Afghanistan and requested we make the cloths customarily worn by Afghan men bulletproof. They wanted suits and undershirts but also needed kurtas," Haider says. "The kameez is not ornate, but we have to make it of the best cotton, as well as undetectably bulletproof, because the security detail will be wearing it surrounded by parliament members."

In an effort to keep their bulletproof goods out of the wrong hands, Aspetto does a careful background check for all clients. "Anyone who wears our ballistics, we have to know who they are," Haider says. In the United States, they do a state and federal check for felonies. International shoppers must first register their information with the clothier, which then checks it against records at the ministry of interior of the client’s home nation.

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Author: Dottie Maguire

Dottie Maguire

Member since: Mar 05, 2015
Published articles: 117

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