From her childhood, Rubaba Akter was always interested on new fashions, and lifestyle related stuff. She always dreamt of doing something different, and something related to her passion. After completing her studies in Fashion designing, she was struggling to make a successful venture, and in February 2008, she along with her husband Arif Chowdhury founded Shelai, a shop of the women's clothes, in an effort to turn his dream into reality. About the early story of Shelai, Rubaba Said, "At the beginning, we passed a very tough time. We started our journey with just two sewing machines. For the first couple of months, we didn't get any orders but my husband was always there with me. Since the day the idea of founding" Shelai" had come up, he always supports me whenever I need.
"We had visited lots of places day and night with bags of clothes. We had also received so much mental support from here and there. At that particular time, mental support was essential."
Shelai has millions of reach on its Facebook page. Through Facebook Live, it got tremendous success in the last couple of years. Besides, in this pandemic, it is also giving online shopping experiences to its beloved customers so that everyone can purchase their favorite dress staying in their residence.
Rubaba believes honesty and proper manner can make an initiative successful. She said, "Do what you love. We have to survive through our works in people's minds."
However, the country's one of the most renowned fashion shops, Shelai has four outlets around Dhaka city in popular shopping malls.