While the bulk of Lebanese would not hesitate before buying a secondhand car, most frown upon the idea of purchasing, let alone wearing, secondhand or vintage clothes. Deeply engrained as this attitude may be, secondhand and vintage fashion is on the rise in Beirut. 

“I wanted to open a vintage store as I knew that in Europe it was [all] the rage but didn’t exist here,” Yasmeen Borro, owner of Vintage Story, says. Borro opened her boutique, the first of its kind in the Middle East, in Kantari in 2008. Initially, she had vintage clothes as well as accessories in store but quickly came to realize that while her clientele was open to buying and wearing previously used earrings or handbags, most drew the line with garments or dresses. 

“The thought of it being old, that it may have been fished out of an old suitcase or been found on a flea market or thrift store — I go to and find things everywhere, across Europe but also at Souk el-Ahad, in Tripoli and Sabra — is unbearable to most,” Borro says. 

Once she realized that previously owned dresses wouldn’t work, she concentrated on her own original creations, under the label Vintage Story, while also selling actual vintage earrings, brooches, necklaces, armbands, handbags, headgear and some clothes. 

“The old inspires the new and that works,” she says of her label, which she classifies as “high end.” She describes her clientele as mixed, consisting of Arab women; half foreign, mainly from the Gulf, and half Lebanese.

“Initially, I was convinced that you could find many things in Beirut,” she says of her sourcing process. “However, Lebanese women don’t keep much… people move, much has been given away. I sometimes get calls, and people offering me things at exorbitant rates. They offer me something for $80 that I can find in Europe for €20.” Consequently very few of the vintage items she sells are from Lebanon; most come from Berlin, Paris and Belgium. “I have a big purveyor in Brussels who manufactured classy leather handbags all his life. Every time I’m there I take some of his stock.”

While jewelry requires little work before being ready for re-sale, clothes need to be carefully inspected, dry cleaned, stains removed and any damage repaired. 

Once a year, Borro takes part in an expo, usually in the Gulf. “Women there love individual pieces. They try and outdo each other and are bold in their choices. They buy massive amounts of [vintage] jewelry!”

a new concept for beirut

Similar to Vintage Story, about half the items for sale at Naela Nammour’s Pink Henna are vintage and the other half new creations. Her Mar Mikhael boutique also specializes in vintage accessories, including handbags, jewelry and homeware. 

Nammour classifies an item as vintage when it is 25 years old or more. She has bags going back to 1900 and 1910 and almost every decade of the 20th century is represented, up to the 1980s. Over decades of collecting, buying and selling vintage items, she has become a vintage expert. 

“To me, secondhand is more recent, vintage is older. Vintage may be secondhand, but not necessarily as you sometimes find items that have never been used,” Nammour says. “I lived in Paris for 20 years and travelled around the world, and have collected a lot.” While she dearly holds on to many items found in various parts of the world, some of her own collectables constituted the initial stock for Pink Henna, opened four years ago.  Her customers are mostly locals. “Locals have discovered vintage, they often come to look for a present. [Then] the person who received the present often comes to look for the place where it came from,” she says. 

Nammour recently started a Facebook page and has relied on word of mouth. “We’re listed in the Zawarib [Beirut city map] and sometimes magazines or production companies come to take items on consignment for ads or shoots.” Vintage Story’s Borro, who has also relied on word of mouth, is setting up a website for her clothing label but otherwise prefers to remain niche and not advertise. 

To stock up, Nammour travels once or twice a year to comb through some of Europe’s flea markets, and works with a few professional buyers in various places, including France, the United Kingdom and the United States, from whom she gets most of her stock. 

Despite its rising popularity, a stigma still remains around vintage pieces. “The concept is new, Lebanese are used to the word but not everybody understands the concept. Many think that it’s never worn — not quite,” says Maya Kaddoura, founder of Washed and Found, an online buyers and sellers marketplace for vintage and luxury items. 

 “When I used to live in Europe there were so many dépot-vente [boutiques where high-end brands are sold at seriously slashed prices], you would have to beg to sell your things. Here it is the other way,” she says. 

“In France it’s more valuable to have an item that has history. Here, people are starting to get into it, often though not because of the idea, but because it’s less expensive. If they could buy something new they would. Things that work well here are handbags.” 

Her mother and grandmother’s beautiful garments sparked the idea for a vintage business. “I tried to come up with a project with limited investment. Initially, I considered a blog, but eventually opted for the e-commerce route,” Kaddoura says. She set up a slick website with high quality images and tried to do much herself, including retouching the pictures and finding the items to sell. “Setting up a payment gateway costs between $4,000 and $10,000 and, especially in Lebanon, many people are still getting used to the idea of buying online,” she says. 

After a soft launch in August 2013, Kaddoura did an official launch in November. “At the beginning friends of friends and friends of my mom’s were my customers, that’s how I also got my first items — word of mouth worked. Many people wanted to sell initially but the situation has changed somewhat as now there are a bit more people who want to buy. Things I sell now are more interesting as I know what people like and will buy…I have everything from fashion to accessories to shoes. I’m looking for jewelry, and I’ve just uploaded the first bridal pictures to the site. A Chanel bag is the item to have!” 

unique treasures

Kaddoura takes items on consignment and, once sold, 30 percent of the cost goes to Washed and Found, which covers the photo shoot, social media, retouching and handling fees.  

Those who want to view something need to do so by appointment. The 350 items in stock are stored in an empty office, cheaper in rent than a boutique.  

“My customers mostly consist of women aged between 18 and 40, people who want to sell are older. They have been holding on to their old clothes. Women aged between 18 and 26 are the youngest and largest group — they go for secondhand. A 19-year-old girl bought the first Louis Vuitton vintage piece I had.” Men don’t really feature, although a few have shown interest. 

Washed and Found, which employs one part-time assistant, ships internationally using DHL for international shipments and LibanPost in Lebanon. 

When the bounty of years of collecting claimed too much space in her house, Nawal Akl looked for a place to store some of it. “I got this flat in Mar Mikhael,” she says. “I rented it at first, and stored some of the many things I have here. The ‘untouchables’ are still at home.” 

Eventually Akl bought the flat and started to sell secondhand and vintage clothes, jewelry, accessories and shoes in 2011, to surprising success. “I thought I would have to make it work but it worked by itself. It pleases me when I see these items looking good on someone else.” 

The small flat on Badawi Street, named Depot-Vente, is the ultimate treasure trove, full of spectacular, ridiculous, chic and everyday items, where one can find genuine near-new leather boots for LL20,000, designer pieces, real fur coats or a 1970s bathing costume.  “I often find things during my travels,” Akl says. “And I go through cupboards… I also find contemporary stuff. I buy everything, and sell much at LL3,000. Everything that is well made, made longer ago or is handmade is priced differently, as are Italian and French brands. Items made in China — even Ralph Lauren or Donna Karan — are sold at LL3,000 because that is the production cost. When people now see something at H&M for LL80,000 they know it’s worth LL3,000. I do a sort of consumer education.” 

“This place allows people to find unique pieces. It allows for individualism and goes against conformity. We’re tired of H&M, Mango and Zara — everywhere in the world you see the same dresses and fashion.” 

It looks like secondhand is here to stay. Next year will see the launch of the e-commerce website, Garage Luxe, specializing in luxury brands. So far operating only on Facebook and Instagram, the store has a vast array of classics that could make it a game-changer on the scene. 

What matters to Borro is the fact that an old garment is given a second life. “Maybe with the crisis we’re experiencing, Lebanese will come to accept it more,” she says.

Close to Beirut’s Sodeco Square, a painting of a LL100,000 bill has popped up. It’s not an exact replica of the real note. It features a portrait of the late and renowned Lebanese writer, artist and poet Gibran Khalil Gibran.  This is not the first time 20-year-old graffiti artist Yazan Halwani has painted influential cultural figures on the city’s streets. Stroll down Gemmayze and you will come across a large depiction of Lebanese singer Fairouz. Head to the industrial area of Qarantina and you will spot a portrait of the late journalist and political activist Samir Kassir.

An activist at heart

When he is not studying for his undergraduate degree in computer and communications engineering (CCE) at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Halwani is making Beirut’s streets prettier. Typically choosing walls crammed with posters of electoral candidates; Halwani brings them down or paints over them. “All our role models are politicians so I wanted to replace them with people that are more positive and influential. If we use them as role models instead, maybe the country will go forward,” he says.

Halwani is not just a graffiti artist and an honors list student. He is an activist at heart. His graffiti of Ali Abdallah — a homeless man well-known around the Bliss Street area whose death from cold early last year shook the AUB community — serves as a reminder “not to wait for someone to die on the streets because of the cold [but] to help them out, you can help anytime,” he says. He has plans to make his pieces work for the homeless but prefers to only share these ideas once they materialize. 

From French Rap to Beirut Streets

Halwani’s artistic journey started at the age of 14 when he was a student at the Grand Lycée in Ashrafieh. A fan of French rap, Halwani was influenced by several bands such as IAM and NTM, who talked of graffiti in their songs. He says he just wanted to be cool and drawing graffiti had something of a gangster connotation. His talent swiftly caught the attention of his friends and he garnered a long list of requests to design them graffiti nametags. As his artistic journey evolved, he started experimenting with calligraphy, an artistic form he now includes in many of his pieces. Eventually his work went beyond arousing interest among his friends and was spotted by renowned German graffiti artist Tasso. In Beirut on a commission for the downtown nightclub The One, Tasso reached out to Halwani and spent a day working with him on a piece in Ashrafieh’s Abdel Wahab Street. 

A costly endeavor 

Halwani’s first outdoor piece was a flop. He underestimated how many spray cans he needed and couldn’t afford to complete the piece in the Jnah neighborhood. That’s when he realized that to undertake further street pieces — some of which cost up to $800 — he would have to find a way to fund himself. So, he started selling canvases and taking work on commission. Starting off with his friends, his roster of clients eventually expanded to include media group LBC and Kuwait’s Zain Telecom. 

Last year he had his first, and thus far only, solo exhibition in Gemmayze’s 392Rmeil393 gallery entitled “Banana republic” — a reflection of his view of Lebanon, a politically unstable country with an economy largely dependent on the export of a single resource: human capital. On one of the gallery’s walls Halwani drew a smiling monkey wearing a tie representing the typical political candidate, with a banana in the background instead of the party’s logo. To poke fun at the quotes that go along with the electoral posters such as “For Lebanon only” he also modified one of Gibran’s renowned quotes. “If Lebanon wasn’t my country, I would’ve chosen Lebanon as my country” was replaced with “If Lebanon wasn’t my country, I’d opt for Canada as my country” to underline his frustration with politicians’ uselessness at curtailing youth emigration. 

Sadly Halwani feels his creativity is not utilized within his CCE degree. “It’s all about ‘previouses’” — the exams of former semesters — he stresses. He has no sense of fulfillment as he doesn’t “create anything; he feels the degree lacks innovation and creativity. In computer engineering, you can always create something new and that’s missing” he adds. And so he diverts his creative energy to the city’s streets, making them prettier and hopefully influencing passersby to ignore the political figures that don’t matter, and focus on the cultural ones that do. 

In today’s global economy, it is imperative for multinationals and large corporations to develop and maintain an international market to remain competitive. Whereas once upon a time that meant hefty periods of travel in any working calendar, today online meetings and virtual conference calls are beginning to replace the time and expense of travelling. But in Lebanon, where the internet connection leaves a lot to be desired, travelling is still really the only means to preserve relations with international clients, despite the cost. 

Travel agencies in Lebanon have been quick to meet the demands of Lebanese businesses and multinationals that have offices in the country by establishing separate corporate travel divisions within their agenices to handle frequent travelers and corporate accounts.

Today corporate travel divisions are an essential part of Lebanese travel agencies. Selim Boutros, corporate travel manager at Kurban Travel, says their corporate division constitutes 60 percent of the agency’s business and handles more than 250 companies in Lebanon and the region. They achieve this mainly through their Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) section — an international corporate service provider and travel management company which Kurban joined in 2006 and for which it now acts as the regional hub and contact center in Lebanon and the Levant area — and also through the Kurban Corporate section which handles smaller companies based in Lebanon and the group’s meetings and events section.  

Nadine Kekhwa, director of the corporate department at Nakhal & Cie travel agency, says they manage around 60 corporations in Lebanon for full travel packages, without counting the companies who book only airline tickets through them. She explains that, especially in the winter season, it is the corporate accounts — with their steady stream of travel — that bring in the most revenues to Nakhal, since most leisure clients go on only one or two vacations per year.

Although Wild Discovery declined to provide the exact number of their corporate clients, Claudia Rouhana, head of their corporate desk, says they handle “the biggest travel accounts in town.”

According to the travel agencies interviewed, clients are mainly from sectors with significant travel budgets, such as pharmaceutical, insurance and consultancy companies, as well as major banks and multinationals.  Employees of such corporations, according to the agencies, travel mainly to Middle Eastern countries or to Europe and usually for a period of two to three days for either international conferences and exhibitions or meetings with clients. 

For a corporate division to be viable to a travel agency, explains Kurban Travel’s Boutros, volume of travel is usually more important than company size or number of clients. Nakhal’s Kekhwa says that some multinational companies have such a big volume of travel that they need a dedicated employee to handle them separately. Such companies, whose accounts can reach up to $70,000 per month according to Kekhwa, bring in more revenue than several small client companies combined. 

While the internet may not provide a reliable alternative to travel agencies in Lebanon, agencies nonetheless face competition when it comes to possible clients booking and finding deals online. 

Agencies view themselves more in the role of consultants than airline ticket bookers for corporate clients, and though corporations can certainly use online resources to independently arrange their trip, agencies believe they are still irreplaceable as travel managers. According to Kurban Travel’s Boutros: “We are walking away from merely booking and more into management and consultancy, which cannot be achieved online. Our clients are very happy and surprised with what we do and we have double-digit growth figures in the corporate division.” 

 “It is true that Lebanese travelers tend to go online to look for competitive prices,” says Wild Discovery’s Rouhana, ‘‘but most of them rely on their travel agent to finalize the booking. The online platform is not seen as a real challenge for us as Wild Discovery launched an online booking engine last year — a complete online solution that compares prices and addresses the ticketing and hotel needs of its clients — and yet we still have a demand for consultancy and assistance from our business travelers, which implies that human expertise and know-how are essential.” 

 Corporations look for ‘‘flexibility, solutions, availability of a dedicated account handler and competitive rates,” from a travel agency, says Rouhana. While Kekhwa says that corporations generally ask for the whole package including hotel reservations, transfers within their destinations and visas.

The main concern for corporations when it comes to travel remains how much they can save financially without cutting down on important trips. Corporate travel divisions can help in this regard. “Some corporations have huge travel budgets both regionally and locally and are starting to be concerned. They realize they are spending that much on travelling but how are they spending it? Can they save and how can they monitor this? That’s where we come in,” says Boutros, adding that when they start managing corporate travel accounts, they save the company an average of 15 percent of their previously unmanaged travel budget, and can save up to 25 percent. 

Kurban Travel, explains Boutros, is able to achieve these percentages by consolidating figures and savings with participating hotels and airlines made possible through HRG which provides them with the necessary large travel volume. “Let’s say we are spending $10 million with Middle East Airlines (MEA), we go to MEA and negotiate a better deal, over and above the traditional miles. Mind you, this only works with corporations with a specific volume and destinations,” says Boutros adding that when they take over an account, after researching it, they commit to a tangible amount of savings based on the data gathered from the company. The specific amount of savings depends on travel volume and complexity. 

Kekhwa says Nakhal recognizes the importance of using their expertise to provide clients with the best rates in order to maintain loyalty: “If a corporation finds a hotel room at a lower price than the one offered by us, they will never use our services again and our goal is long term. This is why we have our contractors always seeking out the best rates.” 

As part of their corporate travel services, Kurban Travel maintains a constantly updated and extremely comprehensive database of their clients’ travel needs and policies. This allows companies to maintain compliance with their travel policies as Kurban acts as their gateway, not allowing employees to book against the terms of the policy — which not only saves companies money but also the awkwardness of informing senior employees that they cannot book in a certain airline or hotel class. This database also functions as a tracking system, allowing large corporations to immediately locate and reach their travelling employees through text messages in times of crisis. 

Nakhal’s corporate clients have 24-hour access to their agents through their personal cellphone numbers. They also have the option to settle their account at the end of the month in accordance with the terms of their agreement with Nakhal. “This is a service which our corporate clients enjoy; some corporations send their employees abroad on a weekly basis and you know how the accounting process is in corporations! It is more convenient for them to pay the statement of account at the end of the month,” says Kekhwa.  

Wild Discovery’s Rouhana sums up their role by saying that in the business world, time is money and they can save their corporate clients time through handling all details of their trips and prevent them from facing the unexpected while abroad.