We Design Beirut 2025: A language of optimism

Aisha Zaman immerses herself in the atmosphere of the ‘Threads of Life’ exhibition, part of the We Design Beirut event in the Lebanese capital. The celebration of textile arts provides her with plenty of reasons to be hopeful

The Supper Club, Studio Hass Idriss

Here, every stitch carried memory and intent. Stepping into the softly lit halls of the former Abroyan sewing factory on the outskirts of Beirut, visitors were enveloped in the hum of artisan labour, the subtle scent of natural fibres, and the textured narrative of a city stitched through decades of history. Here, textile was not simply exhibited—it was performed, sensed and reimagined.

‘Threads of Life’, one of the most arresting experiences at We Design Beirut 2025 (22–26 October), transformed textile into a living presence—delicate yet unbreakable, personal yet profoundly collective. The factory, once an emblem of industrial craft, became a laboratory of making and meaning. Handmade fabrics and natural-material-based works traced Lebanon’s craft lineage while opening conversations about social impact, cultural continuity and the quiet power of memory. Throughout the installations, every weave told a story—threads of personal experience, collective labour and shared imagination intertwined into expressions of hope and renewal.

Ahmed Amer

We Design Beirut was more than a design event; it was a philosophy of creative dialogue and cultural celebration. Bringing together heritage artisans, contemporary designers, architects and performers, it revealed how traditional practices could spark new forms of thinking and making. Craft became a language of optimism: rooted in history yet forward-looking. In Beirut, creativity was not a luxury; it was an act of survival and a testament to the city’s enduring pulse.

‘What began as a vision has become a movement—a reminder that through art, design and culture, we can rebuild bridges, reignite hope and tell the story of a city that never stopped creating,’ said event founder Mariana Wehbe. ‘Beirut, in all its magic and chaos, welcomed the world once again, proving that beauty and brilliance still pulse through every street, every hand, every heart. We design not only objects or spaces, we design connection, healing and belonging. Together, we kept inviting the world back to Beirut.’ 

Jawharunā, Vanina

This year’s exhibition gathered eight visionary participants, each exploring the expressive potential of craft and narrative. Together, their works wove a contemporary portrait of Beirut’s creative soul—defined not by nostalgia, but by renewal. Every thread became a declaration: from fragility emerged strength, and from tradition, transformation. 

Vanina presented Jawharunā, a suspended garden of memory where hemp threads and biodegradable beads diffused fragrances of gardenia, jasmine and cedar. The work transformed tactile interaction into meditation, celebrating Lebanese craft while honouring the hands that brought it to life. Visitors engaged with the softness and fragility of the suspended threads, feeling memory and continuity in every gesture. The garden’s ephemeral quality mirrored the transient yet enduring nature of memory, inviting viewers to pause, breathe and reflect.

It’s All About Perspective, Bokja

Bokja, a Beirut-based collective, interrogated inherited narratives and collective memory through the installation It’s All About Perspective. Their work encouraged visitors to consider multiple viewpoints, challenging entrenched assumptions and exploring how identity and history were interpreted across generations. A central tapestry depicted a reborn tree symbolising life and death, while hand-woven pieces reimagined voodoo dolls as icons of empowerment rather than fear. The installation reflected on Lebanon’s fifty-year civil conflict, highlighting ongoing tensions and offering a space for dialogue, reminding audiences that embracing multiple perspectives was essential to understanding the complexity of Lebanon’s past and present. 

Ajialouna transformed social impact into textile art through a single flowing piece embroidered with children’s drawings, letters and traditional motifs. It was crafted by women artisans from vulnerable communities, and each stitch symbolised dignity, hope and resilience. The scale and texture of the textile invited visitors to immerse themselves fully, tracing lines of care and devotion across vibrant surfaces. Through this intimate interaction, craft became both a vessel of cultural memory and an agent of social change, illustrating the capacity of handmade work to empower lives while preserving heritage. 

Ahmed Amer showcased a tapestry chronicling his personal journey with Beirut over eight years. Using dyed deadstock fabrics stitched with Levantine and Aghabani embroidery motifs, he transformed discarded textiles into blooming landscapes of colour, texture and hope. Soft, floral embroideries evoked a city in constant rebirth, where memory and collective endurance coexisted. Each layered panel read like a living map of Beirut’s emotional and architectural landscape, inviting visitors to consider the intertwined stories of personal and civic identity, survival and regeneration. 

Ajialouna

Inaash brought Palestinian embroidery to the forefront as both cultural preservation and social enterprise. The panels offered immersion in patterns rich with memory and identity, celebrating collaboration, skill and resilience. Each design bridged past, present and future, demonstrating how textile could be a participatory medium sustaining cultural legacy. The meticulous stitching and detailed motifs highlighted the artisans’ expertise while affirming embroidery as a living dialogue, keeping heritage thriving in a contemporary context. 

Sarah’s Bag fused bold design with artisanal mastery, showcasing handcrafted crocheted pieces where colour, embroidery and pattern conveyed stories of empowerment and continuity. Lebanese women transformed materials into objects that were simultaneously aesthetic, cultural and socially meaningful. Through their work, textiles became a medium for storytelling, connecting tradition with contemporary design, preserving heritage while inspiring new narratives of possibility and agency. 

Inaash

In The Supper Club, Studio HASS IDRISS transforms the familiar act of dining into an immersive meditation on connection and contradiction. A hand-embroidered tablecloth shimmers with thousands of beads—each a fragment of story, ego, and hidden truth. Visitors enter through a translucent fabric labyrinth built on the golden ratio, a ritual passage echoing the body’s cycles of gathering and release. At its heart, an illuminated table becomes a stage for sensory tension—light shifting through gauze, murmurs intertwining, scent hanging in the air like memory.

Twelve hanging headphones give voice to archetypes of human behaviour—feminist, capitalist, victim, coloniser, egomaniac—each revealing overlapping monologues of insecurity, humour, and desire. Balancing beauty and unease, the exhibit exposes the fractures beneath civility. It is less a dinner of harmony than of revelation—a sensory portrait of our shared, dissonant humanity.

Salim Azzam orchestrated An Embroidered Dream, an immersive performance and installation celebrating Lebanese embroidery traditions passed down through generations of Druze women. Over forty craftswomen surrounded a massive sheet of fabric, moving in silent unison to the pulse of Lynn Adib’s voice, accompanied by music composed by Wassim Bou Malham. The live performance revived Mount Lebanon’s artisan traditions, turning embroidery into a ritual where legacy, womanhood and cultural memory intersected. Cascading silk drapes, rhythmic needlework and melodic accompaniment immersed the audience in a multisensory experience, highlighting the performative, communal and ceremonial dimensions of textile practice. 

‘Threads of Life’ was more than an exhibition; it offered a living archive. Collectively, the participants revealed how textile could serve as a language of memory, healing and resilience. In Beirut, as in this exhibition, fragility was strength, and the handmade became a luxury both intimate and enduring—a testament that craft, anchored in heritage and imagination, could transcend time and space.

An Embroidered Dream, Salim Azzam