Palestyle Making Fashion Matter 

Palestyle Making Fashion Matter 

January 28, 2017
Palestyle Making Fashion Matter 
Palestyle Making Fashion Matter 

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By Mariam Nihal


Zeina Abou Chabaan launched Palestyle  in 2009. What sets her foray into luxury apart from the rest is it’s stance on empowering women refugees. 

“The motivation behind it developed during my work in supply chain management in the Multi-National, Procter and Gamble; quickly I knew my heart was not in corporate life and its politics but rather in social work. So with a clear passion and good business experience, I had a vision for Palestyle, a luxury fashion brand empowering refugee women,” Chabaan told Saudi Gazette.

She said true inspiration came from meeting Palestinian refugee women during her visits to refugee camps. Chabaan found various artisans embroidering with  colorful silk threads. “From there the brand concept developed to genuine leather handbags signed off with gold plated Arabic calligraphy and handmade embroidery.”  

The brand grew exponentially and made it to high end retailers like Bloomingdales and House of Fraser. It was even seen on celebrities Eva Longoria and Gwenyth Paltrow. Palestyle went on to win the Emirates Women Humanitarian Award in 2013. Now the brand has diversified their collection by launching Palestyle Living, Embroidered Home Accessories, and shifted the production of the hand bags to Italy. “So embroidery from the refugee camps in Middle East travel to Italian Workshops where bags are crafted. To date we have empowered around 100 refugee women with jobs, over 4000 refugees with social development projects, and 450 refugee children with a reading opportunity through our latest social project, a community library built for them. It has been a roller coaster ride between success, learnings and difficulties. Sweat, tears and smiles but definitely the continuous drive of serving the refugee women with every Palestyle creation keeps us going.” Find out more about the brand in an exclusive interview with Chabaan.



SG: How is it working with refugee women in Jordan- who initiated this and how do you facilitate the movement?


ZC: It is not easy as the women are tough negotiators. So every women would decide on how many pieces she likes to work on, at the comfort of her own home, upon the rate she agrees on. Pieces do take their time to be embroidered. There was lots of training on quality to ensure every embroidery piece is of clean finishing and rich stitching. Palestyle sends the digital pattern to our quality control head in Amman. They distribute work among ladies ensuring quality and timeliness of delivery and we make frequent visits each year to ensure all is running smoothly.


SG: Tell us about the brand name and what it means to you?


ZC: The brand name was inspired by the beautiful Palestinian refugee women embroidering with so much love and hope. Today Palestyle aims to serve all refugee ladies possible regardless of boundary and background.


SG: Can reflect on the aesthetics of the brand.

ZC: The brand’s aesthetics and concept, are a reflection of each other. Both highlight the DNA of Palestyle which is Luxury, Heritage through Arabic Calligraphy & Hand-made Embroidery, and thirdly our Social Impacting. Visually in the Logo we can see the luxury element through the choice of colors, Red and Black, and fine capital typography of name; while heritage is reflected subtly through the traditional embroidery pattern used in Logo, called Moon of Betlehem. Finally our commitment to social impacting is mentioned in our slogan too “High End – On Trend – With a Social Edge”


SG: Your journey and dreams


ZC: Our dream is to see Palestyle as one of the top 10 High End Social Fashion Brands in the World. We have quite a long way to go along this exciting journey to ultimately get where we want to.


SG: Your latest collection 


ZC: It reflects the brand’s DNA amazingly where luxury Italian craftsmanship embraces the beauty of our rich heritage. The making of the bags features crisp classical lines merging with Arabic calligraphy and handmade embroidery in a very subtle and modern way. Inspiration behind it is very geometrical -strong powerful lines- and the colors taken from nature.


SG: Can you reflect on your journey and experience in the regional fashion industry 


ZC: I am mostly impressed, inspired and challenged by the fashion consumer who through this decade has shifted from a consumer to a trendsetter through incredible savviness, a high taste of luxury and definitive influence through social media.


SG: Challenges and how you keep up with changing trends 


ZC: The challenges of the fashion Industry especially now a days for luxury brands is how to maximize on technology available without intruding the customer, how to personalize marketing and customize for the customer, and how to reach the affluence in a challenging global economy. The international market regardless how big is becoming smaller with availability of data and globalization making competition move at a very fast pace. Therefore we constantly try to tackle those points to our advantage especially being an entrepreneurial business.


January 28, 2017
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