Tatiana Akl

My thesis was written at a time when fashion institutions were struggling to survive in Lebanon, a country facing constant crises, including a revolution, the emergence of a pandemic, and a massive explosion that shattered the capital. I focus on key fashion institutions such as Creative Space Beirut, a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a free fashion design school, and Fashion Trust Arabia, STARCH, and Slow Factory, three nonprofit associations that provide financial and business support to fashion designers in the Middle East and North Africa. I also examine established and emerging brands that play an important social role in the Lebanese fashion system. My research—in which I employed ethnographic methods such as interviews, field research, note taking, and participatory observation—is designed to redress the lack of academic literature on the role of fashion in Lebanese society. My goal is to reveal the importance of education and social innovation and the impact of fashion on a country in crisis and to come up with an action plan for these institutions.