Ben Barka's studio is in downtown Tripoli, off a busy traffic circle and not very far from where Qaddafi lives. The road in front of is unpaved, littered and rutted.
But it is a thrill for her, because the studio is in one of her father's old textile factories; through her work and relations with the first family, she said, she was able to convince officialdom to return at least something that once belonged to the family business.
Inside it is cold and dank like a factory, with cement floors, walls and ceilings. There are four or five sewing machines in the work space. There is a large picture of Brother Leader leaning against one wall, and racks of clothing that speak to her goal of fashioning Libyan identity in a modern context.
"We cannot pretend to be European or American," she said, as she flipped through racks of clothing as though gently turning the pages of an old family photo album. Libyan clothing reflects the country's Islamic, African and desert identities, all of which she plays with and builds on.
For both men and women there are bold stripes and intricate embroidered patterns. She sometimes uses materials woven with strands of gold and silver. For women there can also be pants, often beneath a traditional flowing veil that extends to the shoulders, like a shawl.
For men there are Western-style suits, livened up with embroidery on the sleeves, chest and waist. There are plays on traditional color patterns; black and white, for example, where tradition calls for only white.
"I didn't want to lose our character," she said.
Though her work was a shock to some Libyan traditionalists, over the years, she said, she has won a following here, dressing foreign diplomats and their spouses, staging fashion shows for visiting delegations and, of course, continuing her work for the first family. Now, she said, she grapples with another problem: bootleggers copying her designs.
But still, as Libya feels its way between isolation and integration, her audience is limited, her opportunities stunted. The country has begun to move toward economic reform, while preserving Qaddafi's political system. She cannot, for example, manufacture new clothing for every show, because the gold and silver threads are costly. She has been unable to figure out how to show her work in the US.
Few people can actually wear the haute couture of Europe off the runway. High-end outfits are for fashion shows and the Academy Awards. Ben Barka's clothing would also be tough to wear for a day at the office, or even a night out on the town. But Qaddafi is not afraid to wear a powder-blue jumper or lime-green robes.
It is impossible in Libya to get a fix on the colonel's thinking, so what he sees in the designs remains a mystery. But Ben Barka's idea is that his clothing represents a marriage of where Libya was and where she would like to see it go.
Standing in her studio, she held up a shiny suit with narrow black and gold stripes. The cut was Western and the pattern Libyan. A visiting friend pushed her to acknowledge that she had made one just like it for Qaddafi.
But she demurred. That was as far as she would go about her famous client.
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