Elle B. Mambetov

Elle B. Mambetov is an innovative designer in the modest fashion industry with a boutique in Beverly Hills, California and a Farfetch partner making exclusives for the fashion platform. The Texas native has traveled the world and built brands in foreign lands, becoming a London Fashion Week designer at the age of 26. Then Mambetov was falsely arrested and spent two years in a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom - innocent.

The book "A6347DW: American Captive" chronicles Mambetov's experience as an American fashion designer locked away and trapped in a foreign prison after being arrested without a warrant. She continued to be held in a maximum security prison at the order of the HMP Bronzefield warden despite government release orders. Having first called the police herself on her accusers, the police penned a case of fraud against the designer, ignoring the 5-count confession of a suspect and once close friend to the designer.

Mambetov faced police corruption, perjury, racism, prison life and sexual misconduct by an HM prison staff member for two years until she was finally released. She struggled to rediscover her creativity and thought she would never design again, yet she persevered. She has since married and converted to Islam, re-launching her brand in May of 2020 during Ramadan.

Mambetov shows how an African American female can go from the catwalk to the confines of prison, cross borders, break barriers and bounce back after each pitfall to create her womenswear brand Elle B Zhou.