(CNN) - From the Raouche Rock and the Cedar Tree to the old Beirut tourist posters, Lebanese designer Sarah Beydoun brings back images from Lebanese memory in her latest collection, transforming familiar symbols and places into bags and accessories based on handicrafts and glass beads.
Speaking about one of the collection's most notable pieces, the Grotte Aux Pigeons, Beydoun begins by recalling her fascination with vintage bags, especially small bags with interlocking metal closures, known as reticules.
Baydoun explained in an interview with CNN Arabic that she wanted to revive this ancient form from a contemporary perspective, drawing inspiration from the Raouche Rock, one of the most prominent landmarks of the Lebanese capital, to turn it into a beaded scene that embodies in her memory the image of the city and its stage of prosperity, noting that making the bag takes about 22 hours of manual work.
The owner of Sarah’s Bag says that this type of bag gained popularity among the European elite during the “Egyptomania” wave that swept Europe in the 1920s, as it was decorated with designs inspired by the pyramids and ancient Egypt. From this visual legacy, she moved to Lebanon, replacing the foreign scenes with the image of the Raouche Rock and giving the design a contemporary local reference.
The story does not stop at the design; Beydoun believes that preserving, developing and presenting local crafts in a contemporary form is an essential part of her brand’s approach.
In the implementation details, she explains that the team began by transforming the image of the Raouche Rock into a precise pattern of beads, carefully choosing the colors of the sea, sky, and natural scene. After testing multiple techniques, the work settled on a technique inspired by the movement of waves, which relies on precise counting of beads to create a gradient effect that gives the sea surface a vibrant appearance. The bag is then assembled and completed with the metal closing frame, a process that requires exceptional skill and precision.
As for materials and colors, Baydoun explains that part of the collection was inspired by old tourist posters, provided with permission from the Philippe Jabr Foundation, and reproduced with the approval of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism. Based on the colors of these posters, printed fabrics and hand-embroidered glass beads were chosen, reflecting Lebanon's warmth, memory and Mediterranean spirit.
In choosing the symbols, the Lebanese designer says that she turned to landmarks that carry a personal meaning for her, before reintroducing them with the brand’s imprint through fun design, delicate embroidery, and old stickers.
I was born during wartime
This idea takes on a deeper dimension when Beydoun talks about the timing of the collection: “Love, Lebanon” began before the war and continued to be developed during this period.
As Lebanon entered a new phase of pain, continuing to work on it became more important to her, considering that the creative process had turned into an act of resilience, a way to celebrate the country in its most difficult moments, as well as an expression of love, hope, and belonging.
In a broader context, she links these meanings to the way she approaches bag design in general, explaining that every bag she makes carries an emotional charge, whether it draws on Middle Eastern culture or revives a dying craft and evokes the memory of a piece that was made in the past by grandmothers.
From Beydoun's point of view, these pieces are inseparable from the human story behind their manufacture. The bags are made by hand by craftswomen who are trained and supported by the brand, which, according to her, makes owning a piece go beyond owning a product to contributing to preserving crafts and joining a broader path to empowering women.
