Carmen Collaborates With Lebanese Artisans on new Homeware Collections
Paying homage to the country’s history of craftsmanship.
Amsterdam-based store Carmen has teamed up with artisans in Lebanon to create handmade collections of pottery, glassware, soap, and slippers, in a bid to pay homage to the craftsmanship of the country.
The project has been overseen by Carmen’s co-founder – and namesake – Carmen Atiyah de Baets, who herself is half Lebanese. Following the explosion in Beirut in 2020, which caused at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless, she felt compelled to help in a way that felt practical. Conversations with fellow Lebanese creatives living abroad resulted in the idea of focusing on artisans who were losing their livelihood.
“It became a way for me to reconnect with my roots and, at the same time, introduce our guests and clients to the beauty and some heirlooms of Lebanon,” she says. “Nostalgia consumed me whole, particularly throughout the ongoing crisis that has cast a shadow over the country and threatened the very existence of its crafts. Lebanon, once a vibrant and otherwise chaotic paradise, suddenly seemed to me like an old world, a vanishing place that we must communally protect and preserve.”
Each item across the collection has been sourced from family-owned shops and factories. The pottery pieces are crafted in Aassia, North Lebanon, using ancient techniques that have been passed down through generations. Glassware comes from the town of Sarafand, in the South of Lebanon, where experts are working to keep the art of the craft alive. Olive-oil infused soaps are made inside a sustainable soap factory in Tripoli, and the handmade slippers were bought from a store named Relaxe in the coastal town of Kaslik.
“The slippers hold a special place in my heart,” Atiyah de Baets says. “These slippers evoke memories of my grandmother, my mother, and countless Lebanese women and girls who embraced them during the warm summer days, making coffee at home or tanning around the pool. Wearing them takes me back to our carefree Lebanese summers, wrapped in the pinkish glow of the sun.”
Prices for the pieces in the Lebanese artisan collection begin at £11 GBP (approximately $14 USD).
In other design news, Herman Miller is paying homage to one of its most iconic poster designs by re-releasing the Watermelon Picnic Poster, created by Steve Frykholm in 1971.
