Giving up on local artisans

After 10 years of collaborations with various Lebanese craftsmen, Karen Chekerdjian — a well known luxury furniture and home accessories designer based in Lebanon — is about to give up on the country’s craftsmanship. She is seriously considering outsourcing her designs to be produced abroad. Chekerdjian started her career abroad, as a designer working for big names in furniture design such as the Italian brand Edra. In 2000, she came back to Lebanon and worked as a prototype designer before deciding to collaborate with various local craftspeople to develop a brand of her own. A challenging experience Chekerdjian recounts how challenging her first experience collaborating with a craftsman was: “I tried to make him change his style of design and it was very difficult. His style was very traditional in that he used to make huge [brass] trays with calligraphy and lots of graphics on it. Even though it’s beautiful, it’s