So, for you, being very politically engaged but also loving fashion aren’t mutually exclusive?
Cynthia Merhej: They exist together for me. Yes, I’m a person who’s very interested in what’s going on in the world, but I still like to go out, I still like to get dressed, I’m still sociable, I’m still very culturally engaged. I don’t think that it has to be one or the other. But I do think fashion is an industry that’s very surface-level, as we know. People just want to digest things very quickly. Because of the nature of social media, everyone wants something fast, and not very nuanced. I don’t want to subscribe to that.
Were there ever any points where you thought ‘I don’t want to do this’ because of the way the fashion industry is?
Cynthia Merhej: I felt that way when I was younger. I really wanted to go into fashion – it was very natural for me to think of things through clothes. But it got to a point when I started to become even more politically aware, thinking much more critically about things. Around the age of 14, I had an epiphany watching Fashion TV. I was like ‘What the fuck? I shouldn’t do this.’ It felt shallow and really surface-level. It was just like a voice in my brain told me that. It took me a really long time to be able to learn to accept that side of myself.
When you moved to London you studied both Visual Communication at RCA and Illustration at Central Saint Martins, rather than fashion.
Cynthia Merhej: After that I moved back to Beirut because I came to the eventual conclusion through all my studies that I really still love fashion, very much [laughs]. Everything I was studying, I was always linking it back to fashion. I applied for internships in fashion houses and no one took me because I didn’t study fashion. I was like, ‘the only way to do this is just do it myself.’ My mom isn’t going to be around forever, and she’s this incredible source of knowledge. It would be idiotic of me not to just go and try.
Do you think that the back-and-forth relationship with fashion has made it stronger? Because you know you definitely want to do it?
Cynthia Merhej: For sure, yeah, because it’s not for the faint of heart.
You mentioned earlier that some pieces are crafted from repurposed military jackets – how important is the idea of circularity and sustainability to the brand?
Cynthia Merhej: It’s just very core to how I think. Maybe it’s the part of me that was very aware of capitalism from a young age. This idea of consumption for the sake of consumption, it’s a huge turn-off. My mother had been through war, and she had this mindset of only buying things that last. I grew up watching her go out of her way to get the best fabrics so our clients come back.
There wasn’t this idea of fast fashion when I was growing up, it was a very recent thing that started when I was a teenager. Before that, there wasn’t Zara or H&M. The ideas of consumption are relatively new in Lebanon, and they’re very Western. It’s not about making maximum profit for me. Yes of course I want to make money to survive so I can make a nice collection next season, and so I can keep delivering a higher quality of product, but that’s it.
Your great-grandmother and mother were also couturiers in Lebanon – obviously there’s so much pride in that legacy, but is there a weight of expectation that comes with it?
Of course there’s the expectation, I’m not going to lie and say I never felt pressure from it, but I’m really, really lucky I get to work with my mom and have this legacy, because if I didn’t it would be so difficult for me to have a brand today. It’s a huge privilege.
“In Lebanon it’s very political to wear the keffiyeh… it really made me realise that a piece of fabric could say so much and have so much meaning” – Cynthia Merhej
Do you feel that fashion can be a site of revolution or a vehicle for resistance?
Cynthia Merhej: Yes, I think it can. I think it’s one of the number one sites where it could be, because it’s something that’s so easy. There’s nothing easier than just wearing something to signify your stance. It’s a very simple tool to express a political position, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s being explored enough.
It’s still really important, though. Look at the keffiyeh for example – it’s become such a political tool. When I was growing up, in Lebanon it was very political to wear the keffiyeh. I remember one time I wore it to school and I got bullied. I got threatened, like, ‘We’re gonna kill you’ or whatever by some stupid idiots in my class. But it made me realise that a piece of fabric could say so much and have so much meaning.
And finally, are there any other prominent creatives who inspire your work?
Cynthia Merhej: Obviously there’s Etal Adnan, who’s a painter and writer, but her writing is super inspiring to me. There’s Dorothy Salhab Kazemi the ceramicist, Elia Suleiman the Palestinian film director, the artist Mona Hatoum. I’m more inspired by what’s going on in fine arts, performance and music [than fashion] because I can feed it more into my practice.
Of course, there’s still the usual suspects, like Comme des Garçons or Vivienne Westwood, but I realised I am quite drawn to designers that were self-taught, or didn’t necessarily come from a fashion school background. You’re not going through this indoctrination in a way, you kind of have to come up with your own way of thinking, and your own perspective which is influenced by so many different things.
Scroll through the gallery above for Renaissance Renaissance’s entire SS25 collection
