Russian ex-spy Anna Chapman launches fashion line

Former Russian spy Anna Chapman, who has cultivated a sex bomb image since her return to Moscow, is now launching her signature line of dresses, to be sold in stores around the country.
Chapman, who returned in 2010 under a high-profile Russia-US spy swap, has created a line of dresses and accessories that she presented at a trade fair in Turkey and plans to sell in Russia from February.
"The collection is based around dresses with a price range and styling that is accessible to practically any Russian woman," a spokesman for the bank where Chapman works as an advisor, Grigory Belkin, told the Interfax news agency on Friday.

The clothes will go on sale in February, initially online and then in stores, Belkin said.
Chapman on Thursday gave a preview of the clothes at a fashion show for Turkish brand Dosso Dossi in Antalya, a resort popular with Russians.
She told the Vechernyaya Moskva daily that the collection was "entirely created in Russia" and featured motifs from Russian fairytales and folklore, and would be sold in department stores in cities including Moscow and the upcoming Winter Olympic venue Sochi.

Fashion news website Wday.Ru published photographs of her designs, including handbags styled to look like copies of classic Russian novels such as Nikolai Chernyshevsky's "What is to be done?"

In 2012 Chapman herself appeared as a catwalk model in Turkey, accidentally dropping a pistol she was brandishing.
Chapman has retained an enigmatic silence over her past since returning to Russia. She formally works as an advisor to the president of a bank linked to the space sector, FundServiceBank, although her role is unclear. She also hosts a television show about the supernatural.
She regularly puts in appearances at film premieres and other glitzy events although her fame has waned since her initial return to Russia.