Levantine Spark
Levantine Spark Cosmopolitan to the core, Lebanon and its diaspora are burgeoning with chic cred, says AVRIL GROOM, who traces its flourishing designers and jewellers from the catwalks of Paris to the red carpets of Hollywood GEORGES HOBEIKA evening gown from his pre-autumn 2017 collection LILY GABRIELLA rose gold, diamond and peridot Damali necklace from the Brazilian-born, Monaco-based designer of Lebanese descent For a small country with a troubled recent past, Lebanon has a high reputation for stylistic excellence, and a long list of successful designers who claim it as their birthplace. On the Eastern Mediterranean at the meeting point of Europe and the Middle East, it has been a cultural crossroads for centuries and its association with France brought it a more recent patina of glamour, cosmopolitanism and aesthetic awareness that blends PHOTOS FROM LEFT: ANDREA KLARIN, © LILY GABRIELLA 40 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
STYLE & BEAUTY EN VOGUE MIRA MIKATI multicoloured T-shirt from her autumn/ winter 2017 collection HRH JEWELS rose gold and diamond earrings from the maison of Hind Rafik Hariri PHOTOS CLOCKWISE CXXXXXXXXX FROM OUTSIDE LEFT: © NOOR FARES, © MIRA MIKATI, © HRH JEWELS, © DALIA DAOU, © HRH JEWELS, MUSTHAFA ABOOBACKER NOOR FARES cuff of semiprecious stones and diamonds set in blackened gold from the Akasha Sri Yantra collection East and West with supreme sophistication. There is also a long tradition of high-level artistry in craftwork, particularly in jewellery and couture. It is nearly 20 years since Elie Saab (eliesaab.com) came from Beirut to show in Paris and made an immediate impact with the exquisite ornateness of his evening and wedding gowns, handworked in his hometown ateliers. He now has a Paris salon from which he dresses A-listers, but his petites mains still work in the timehonoured way in Lebanon. His ideas have sparked a genre of Lebanese eveningwear with names like Zuhair Murad, Georges Hobeika and Rami NATHALIE TRAD Polygonia rose hammer shell clutch “LEBANON’S ARTISTIC CREATIVITY IS THE VOICE OF OUR GENERATION” Kadi his talented followers. He also encourages and employs young designers in his studio, some of whom are now making their own waves in the industry. In common with other emerging fashion nations, Lebanon is developing its own design education and infrastructure, with a Beirut branch of revered Paris art college ESMOD and courses linking Belgian fashion school La Cambre and Lebanon’s Academy of Fine Arts led by Rabih Kayrouz (maisonrabihkayrouz.com), a highly talented conceptual modernist based in Paris who has his own haute couture house. He has also run a Beirut project encouraging young designers for almost a decade. The shared experience of Lebanese designers until recently has been to form a diaspora, in Paris, London or New York, for both education and starting businesses. They have also lived through difficult times, which adds resilience. Many are now spending more time in Lebanon and putting back into the local fashion community, in the hope that the next generation will have thriving businesses in their home country. “When you live through a bad situation you have to be optimistic and fight it by living Hind Rafik Hariri, founder of HRH, whose father, a former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated in 2005 DALIA DAOU Morning Bright ring in white gold, yellow sapphire and baguette gemstones CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 41
