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Lebanon’s turbulent history echoes through Beirut fashion and jewellery designers’ dramatic work

Steeped in history, and with one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns on Earth, Lebanon’s energy and mix of cultures have long attracted visitors

War, colonisation and 2020’s devastating port blast have wreaked havoc on the nation, but its young creative talent is among the most dynamic in the Middle East

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“Talent is born out of challenges, difficulties and struggles,” says Lebanese jewellery designer Gaelle Khouri.

Published: 1:15pm, 25 Sep 2021

Violet jacaranda blossoms obscure the bullet-hole-riddled walls of the inner city, independent shops selling silk evening dresses and costume jewellery jostle for space with mosques and musty tea shops, and army recruits in camouflage wander past bars spilling over with rowdy students.

Beirut is a city that defies definition – a place that embodies so much all at once it can feel like sensory overload for the first-time visitor. But it is this complexity that keeps inhabitants wedded to it, even when the electricity has gone out for the third time in a week and political upheaval threatens at every turn.

The difficult-to-describe mix of messy glamour and uncertainty is also the reason the creative talent coming out of Lebanon is among the most dynamic in the region.

“Talent is born out of challenges, difficulties and struggles,” says jewellery designer Gaelle Khouri. “Hardship is something we as Lebanese people have constantly experienced – ever since I was born, the country has been through war, first under the Syrian regime and then Hezbollah, and now the devastating explosion [the accidental August 4, 2020 explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut].

“We know so much about struggle – and yes, we have been impacted, but we have also reinvented ourselves through talent.”

Sunset at Pigeons’ Rock in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Shutterstock

Khouri is one of a new generation of increasingly respected Lebanese jewellers, most of them young women who have used the craftsmanship the country is known for to create sculptural, modern pieces that nod to the past.

Melissa Twigg

Melissa Twigg was born in South Africa, brought up in London and educated at the University of Bristol, where she read English, and the University of London Institute in Paris, where she studied French literature. She went on to work for Paris-based publishing house Éditions Gallimard before jumping ship to the world of journalism. Her writing career began at Condé Nast and it took her to Cape Town and then Hong Kong. She returned to London in 2016 where she has worked for a number of national newspapers, and as a freelance journalist. In 2017, she won a SOPA award for an investigation into rhino poaching and her writing today covers fashion, travel and lifestyle. She is – like everyone else in the industry – working on a novel.

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