07 July 2011

BEIRUT: STARCH Foundation, a nonprofit organization which serves as a springboard for young and emerging Lebanese designers, is preparing for the close of yet another successful year and finalizing the selection process of new designers for its coming season.

The original concept STARCH was founded three years ago by renowned haute-couture designer Rabih Kayrouz and marketing manager Tala Hajjar, in collaboration with Solidere, to support local and fresh Lebanese designers and launch them into the country’s burgeoning fashion industry with the aim of strengthening and developing it.

“It’s a launchpad for designers who are disciplined and talented,” says Hajjar, who was just awarded the Young Creative Entrepreneur Fashion Award in Lebanon by the British Council.

The foundation’s intense annual program selects four to six designers each year and guides them through the communication, marketing, and branding processes of developing and promoting their collections.

The foundation then showcases the designers’ work for a period of one year at STARCH boutique, a space in Saifi Village in downtown Beirut, offered by Solidere to the foundation for free.

According to Hajjar, the foundation is “very lucky” to have been offered the boutique in Saifi, as it is one of the country’s most exclusive areas and is a source of clients for the designers who run the boutique themselves as part of learning the retail experience.

STARCH also exposes the designers to the public as well as local and international press through the various events they hold throughout the year. In May 2011, STARCH designers from 2008, 2009, and 2010 reunited and showcased their collections during an exhibition held at the Beirut Art Center.

Aside from events, the foundation organizes workshops and seminars such as the STARCH ME initiative, sponsored by Le Gray Hotel, which invites successful artists and designers to share their inspiring stories with the team of designers at STARCH.

The foundation mainly works with fashion designers as it is still searching for funding but is looking forward to expanding in the future to include all arts and design fields. “Ideally we’d imagine expanding into a beautiful power station converted into this creative pulse in Lebanon, designed by one of our big architects,” Hajjar said.

According to Hajjar, who alongside Kayrouz is currently finalizing the selection process of the new team of designers for the coming year, recruits of STARCH do not need to have a background in design. “We don’t look for people with specific college degrees, we look for people with creativity, passion, and discipline,” he said, adding “they also need to have a long term vision and a real commitment.”

Although it’s been an extremely slow retail year for designers due to the unstable political situation, Hajjar maintains that running the store is a good experience for the designers who need to learn how to manage a shop, work with other designers, and handle clients.

According to Hajjar, STARCH is trying to move away from the mainstream surge of designers who are feeding into “the long gown red carpet cliché,” which as become highly present in the Lebanese scene. “They call it couture, and on the highway you see billboards of one long-gown designer after the other,” Hajjar said adding “but we’re trying to develop more ready-to-wear fresh individual products.”

Despite the growing long evening gown sector, the country’s relatively new fashion scene is a healthy environment for fashion designers as it’s much easier to break into the Lebanese market in the design world than it is in Europe or the U.S., Hajjar added.

The foundation is currently trying to revive and promote the Lebanese traditional artisanal heritage which has been thinning out over the years with less and less craftsmen involved in the trade.

One of this year’s youngest six designers, Deena Wassef, who graduated with a BA in fashion, said STARCH guided her through the process of launching her brand, Emily Cremona, which has an androgynous identity and designs outfits that could be worn by both male and female clients.

Deena described STARCH as “the only space you can expose yourself as a designer who’s not willing to follow the mainstream of typical designer couture style.”

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.