Artisan stories: Noha

In sustainability we talk a lot about transparency. It’s a necessary part of the puzzle: brands and designers should be held accountable to the words and promises they make to their customers. So you’ll often see photos and videos of artisans at work on brands’ social media or websites, as a way to show that brands are honoring their promises to create safe and equitable environments for the people who make the clothes and as a way to celebrate them!

But a lot of the Lebanese or Syrian artisans we work with do not want to show their faces and don’t feel comfortable with their image being displayed for all to see. This is because of several reasons, some personal, some political. So in this case, it would be disrespecting their wishes to broadcast their image, and would feel more like a way to check a column in the sustainability book rather than really honor their craft and story. I still wanted to celebrate the artisans, their heritage, and their efforts, and we had to think about how to tell their stories in different and novel ways imbued with respect.

We worked with Rama Duwaji together to create short animations that portray the environment, feel and storyline of local artisans working on their respective craft techniques. Each animation follows one person as they execute the technique they specialize in, and shows how each technique is used in the context of the clothing we sell. This specific animation narrates how the hand embroidered t-shirts are made, in the Chouf in Lebanon, by Druze artisans and follows an artisan named Noha as she embroiders a t-shirt.