I love fashion but also feel very strongly about helping the poor and underprivileged and being charitable to them. Sarah Beydoun, founder of Sarah's Bag, has found a way to combine these two opposing loves to create a brand of stunning handbags and accessories, while at the same time benefitting the underprivileged. Her items are made by artisans who happen to be prisoners and ex-prisoners from Lebanese jails.
Sarah & I at her stand at Beirut Art Beat
Sarah's Bag is now a very well established brand in the Middle East with beautiful bags which are each a piece of art. Even better, you can feel good about carrying them! I met up with Sarah at Beirut Art Beat and asked her a few questions about her brand.
Here is my interview with a truly inspiring designer:
Tell me about Sarah's Bag?
I am the Creative Director and Founder of Sarah’s Bag. After studying
sociology at the American University of Beirut, I got master's degree from the
Université Saint Joseph where I wrote my thesis on prostitution in Lebanon. I
launched Sarah’s Bag soon after graduation and my first collection was a set of 12 handbags made by prisoners in Baabda prison that I sold at a craft fair in downtown Beirut.
I then opened my atelier in Beirut in
2000. It brought together my love of design and fashion with
my desire to work with underprivileged women. Today over 150 artisans form
the backbone of Sarah's Bag. We focused on bringing Middle Eastern pop culture
into the mainstream, and on reviving and reinventing the region's rich traditions of craftsmanship, embroidery, crocheting and textile making.
Tell me about the women and prisoners who work for Sarah's Bag?
Our bags and accessories are designed around the skills of the
prisoners and ex- prisoners that we have personally trained and worked with for
the past thirteen years. The designs incorporate techniques we’ve taught them
and we are always to looking to expand their repertoire. A lot of the women we work with were
prisoners when they started with us, and many continued to work with us after
they served their sentences.
Each one of them has a different story to tell,
but they all had to overcome very difficult circumstances, both inside and
outside prison. A lot of them had to rebuild their lives and reintegrate into
their communities while facing the stigma of being ex-prisoners. I am
especially proud of some of our artisans who trained women and girls
from their
villages and became heads of small Sarah’s Bag teams.
How has your brand evolved over time?
We started in the Middle East and built up a
strong clientele in Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world. Arab women
love buying handbags that are stylish, culturally relevant to them, while at
the same time benefitting underprivileged women in their society. We then started to expand and sell internationally.
Do your bags change each season or do they carry over?
We have signature pieces that are inspired by
Lebanese pop culture and textile traditions, the golden age of
Egyptian cinema, and Arabic poetry. These are our classics, but the bulk of the
bags do change each season.We choose a theme based on textile traditions of other cultures like Africa and Central Asia and base a whole collection on it.
(A typical Sarah's Bag inspired by Egyptian Cinema)
Which is your favourite bag from this season?
Whatever I am working on right now is the piece I love. Right now the focus of my obsession is on our latest bag
collection, Summer Blues, which is beaded and very brightly colored: colors
that make me happy and make me think of summer such as turquoise, cobalt blue,
coral, sunshine yellow.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the first ever Sarah’s Bag:
it’s small and has a pink rose sequined onto a black background. I had it
framed and it hangs in my office.
1st ever Sarah's Bag made for Sarah's mom
Have you expanded your product offering?
Yes, we also sell accessories, headpieces, scarves, kaftans, IPAD covers, laptop bags and home accessories. (All of these items can be found on Sarahsbag.com)
Where in the U.A.E can my readers buy your bags? Online?
You can find Sarah’s Bag at O’de Rose on Al Wasl Road, Boom
and Mellow in Mall of The Emirates and Sauce Boutique at Dubai Mall. Online, at our eshop shop.sarahsbag.com
To read stories of some of the prisoners who work for Sarah's Bag, go to www.sarahsbag.com and click 'Our Artisans' at the bottom. The stories are truly inspiring. They make me in awe of Sarah Beydoun for helping these women find their way back into the world while at the same time, creating a fashion brand that rocks!
