Opening a fashion event with a speech on how fashion weeks as a concept are unnecessary isn’t traditional, but then again, Rabih Kayrouz has never walked the obvious path.
The Lebanese designer was the first speaker at Friday’s Fashion Forward (FFWD), a new fashion event bringing together accomplished designers like Kayrouz with the UAE’s would-be designers for frank discussion about the industry.
Asked by a Lebanese journalist when the “dream come true” of a Beirut fashion week would happen, he was quick to shoot the notion down.
“Why? Why do you need to have a fashion week to be good?” he asked. “I don’t have this dream. I would have another dream of having amazing factories in Lebanon that can produce beautiful clothes,” he said, to thunderous applause from the packed house.
“Before having a fashion week, I would prefer to have electricity,” he quipped, to more cheers. “I am happy to be Lebanese, to work in Lebanon and present my work in France. Paris is the best place to do fashion week, it started there. Let’s do something else that we know how to do, let’s do beautiful food, beautiful tourism, let’s bring back beautiful architecture and let’s have electricity to be able to do all this.”
His view was refreshing for anyone who has attended local fashion weeks and been left disappointed. Fashion weeks — such as those in Paris, Milan and New York (and more recently London, which has begun to acquire more relevance) are intended to be trade shows. But here, with buyers hard to attract, they often become a VIP social event with little commerce actually taking place.
Kayrouz started his eponymous label in 2009, immediately setting himself apart from the crystal-encrusted glamour we’ve come to expect from Lebanese designers with his minimalist designs focused on fabrics, clothes that look simple at first glance but are in fact intricately cut and sewn.
“When I started, I never had the idea of doing something different. They were never daring,” he said of his designs. I did exactly what I want — I never looked around me to see what others are doing so I can go against them. This cliche that we have from Lebanese designers is not a cliche. They are doing something for a certain lifestyle. I am doing something else for another lifestyle. This doesn’t make me against them. I look around me, what I see in Lebanon is what I do.”
He’s now stocked in 55 stores from Bal Harbour to South Africa to Dubai (at Harvey Nichols) after finding success by showcasing his work in Paris.
Now, he’s sharing his knowledge and experience with emerging designers in Beirut through the Starch Foundation. Along with his co-founder Tala Hajjar, Kayrouz provides mentoring to half a dozen young designers each year, providing them with shop space in the Beirut’s Downtown area to showcase their work for one year.
“Nobody helped young designers,” he said. As he was moving to Paris to work. “I had to leave something in Lebanon.
“We have to feel that people are ready to do a collection. We have to feel a story, and somebody that in one year’s time, after Starch, can go on in the work. After Starch you are running a boutique, people are seeing your work, so when this year finishes and you have to go out, you have to be capable and ready to do it.”
