Emerging Fervour

Lebanon is known for a lot of things, one being the amazing designers coming out of here. Being at ESMOD, I get to see a lot of emerging talent from third year students, and I feel really lucky to be here, living the dream!

One designer that really stands out for me from Lebanon, who didn’t actually attend fashion school, but learnt everything he knows from a family tailoring business is Abed Mahfouz. Born and raised in Lebanon, Mahfouz creates Haute Couture, Ready to Wear and Bridal – he actually created my sister-in-law’s wedding dress back in 2000 when he was just starting out – unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the day, only a video right now – but I will dig something out and post it soon.

Today, his pieces are pricey investments, check out some of my favourites from is AW10-11 collection:

Ready to Wear

Haute Couture

Bridal

www.abedmahfouz.com

I came across Joe Challita not too long ago and couldn’t help but do a write up on him and his creations. They’re just so beautiful!

A law graduate, Challita’s true passion is fashion and so in 2004 he gave it all up to pursue a career in fashion design. In 2007 he graduated from East Sydney College with a fashion degree and has been based in Beirut ever since (he was raised in Australia).

Through his Lebanese heritage and culture, Challita worked with beautiful fabrics to create his Vintage Nouveau style. And taking a chance to follow his Haute Couture dream, Challita appeared on Mission Fashion – a reality TV show based in Beirut with a mission to select a top model and top fashion designer. One thing led to another, and Challita received an invitation to train at the Elie Saab Fashion House in 2007. Challita has been in Beirut since, pursuing his dreams to dress the women of the world!

Check out these Challita Couture pieces

I think we might!! Check out these amazing 3D-printed haute couture shoes that have been created in a collaboration between Naim Josefi and Souzan Youssouf.

If you hear 3D printed shoes and can’t figure out what it means, which was certainly the case when I read it, imagine a big printer that prints actual shoes rather than ink on paper. How amazing is that?!  3D-printing creates a three dimensional object and is currently used for prototyping of all sorts.

Naim designed the shoe for his ‘Melonia’ show and came from the concept of no waste. They are products for an industrial ecology and due to the homogeneous material they are easier to recycle and create a closed loop.

His vision takes it further, where shoe production would be done on the spot. Imagine you could walk into a shop, scan your foot, customise colour and other elements and then just print out your shoe.

This definitely sounds like our kind of future!!