Young designers realise dreams thanks to Middle East beauty partnership

The Middle East division of Lush recently partnered with non-profit Creative Space Beirut (CSB), a free fashion school founded by Parsons graduate Sarah Hermez and former Parsons professor Caroline Simonelli.

Cultural Heritage wrap, designed by Ahmad Amer. Reem Mohammed / The National

Lebanese creatives, who aspire to become fashion designers but don’t have the money to pay the hefty tuition fees, are being given a helping hand by one of the world’s leading beauty companies.

Besides being a sensorial playground in-store, Lush Cosmetics Company is serious about producing handmade, ethical goods, and it has a strong stance against animal testing. In keeping with its constructive and wholesome repute, the Middle East division of the company recently partnered with non-profit Creative Space Beirut (CSB), a free fashion school founded by Parsons graduate Sarah Hermez and former Parsons professor Caroline Simonelli.

Hermez, who studied fashion design and media and cultural studies in New York, returned to Beirut in 2010 and launched CSB in 2011.

“While studying I did a study abroad programme in Cambodia and India, I lived with a Tibetan refugee camp, and those experiences just changed the way I viewed the world and the work I wanted to do. So I wanted to find a way to combine both of my passions — creativity and social justice,” she explains.

CSB can accommodate five students each year. They’re taught by established designers, are mentored by elder students, and experiment using donated fabrics.

This year saw the school’s first graduating class — and one student got the opportunity to continue her education in Italy, under sponsorship.

Last summer, Lush Lebanon proposed a special project to Hermez: a fashion competition, in which the winning student’s design would be printed on a knot-wrap to be produced and sold in Lush stores.

Lush’s signature knot-wraps are produced from melted-down plastic bottles. The multipurpose scarves are used primarily to package items, inspired by the traditional Japanese Furoshiki concept.

“A huge part of our business is working with grass roots charities especially in education and environmental and against animal testing. So CSB fits really nicely with the ethos of Lush,” says Anita Baker, director of Lush MENA.

Ten students took part in the competition, and two winners were chosen — Ahmad Amer, 23, who was selected by a jury of media and fashion personalities in Beirut, and Ibrahim Fakhreddine, 21, who was chosen by way of an online competition.

Amer’s design, titled Cultural Heritage, shows an aerial view of a Beirut neighbourhood, complete with floor plans, gardens and laundry lines illustrated through watercolours.

“As a proud citizen of Beirut, I wanted this beautiful picture to reach different types of people; people who don’t know Beirut well, so that they could see the essence of this valuable culture, and Lebanese expats, who might be excited to recognise their hometown of Beirut in the illustrations if they come across the scarf in one of the Lush stores across the Middle East,” notes Amer. “It was a great challenge to design a beautiful and meaningful product ready to be sold in the market.”

Fakhreddine’s artwork, titled Ozone, incorporates fiery swirls of colour applied with gauche paint and black markers. “I was inspired by the importance of the Ozone layer — something that is invisible to us but still manages to shape our entire existence,” he says. “This experience taught me that you can use design not just to make clothes and products, but also to collaborate with companies that have similar values and spread positive messages.”

Around 500 of the limited-edition knot-wraps were produced, and, priced at Dh49 each, they’re selling fast in the UAE, despite only being launch in recent weeks.

Profits from the sales will be donated to CSB. “The funds that we’ll gain will go to pay for the education of the existing students,” says Hermez.

Though this may have been the first charitable project to come out of Lush MENA, the team hopes to make it a regular initiative.

“We would love to be able to do this again, if anyone knows of any charities working with designers we would love to work with them for the next round,” says Baker. “This could definitely be an annual thing.”