The international fashion designer experienced the Civil War, but the harbor experience is different
Elie Saab remembers the fateful day: I hold on to hope and I will not emigrate from Lebanon
Saab owns a traditional Lebanese house in the Gemmayzeh region, topped with heritage columns, dome archways, high ceilings, marble and arabesque tiles. Reuters
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Beirut’s dresses, filled with hard looms, flew out, and the red color sneaked into the fabrics of the international Lebanese designer Elie Saab, who found his soft architecture had been shattered to the ground by the city’s port explosion.
And the explosion that destroyed the port of Beirut on an empire made by a man who slept on silk and woke up to weave the dreams of society's women.
Although the storm lasted for a few seconds, for Elie Saab that time seemed like an eternity, as he walked to make sure his 200 employees, including his son, were safe.
Elie Saab sits next to his son, Elie Jr., reminiscing about the fateful day, when he saw his son covered in his blood. And he says: “When I saw him covered in blood, I said: It is not reasonable. It was a quarter of an hour, which could take two days. Not a father, son, son and father issue. The issue is that we all work as if we are a family under one roof. We care for everyone ».
Saab summarizes those moments by saying, "It was like an ugly dream."
The explosion of large quantities of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored for years in a warehouse in the port, without safety measures, caused a cloud of thanksgiving to mushrooms on August 4, killing 178 people, injuring 6000, and destroying entire areas in Beirut.
The explosion destroyed shops of other designers who have fashion houses in downtown Beirut, including Zuhair Murad, Rabi` Keyrouz, Abdel Mahfouz, and others, and some of them were also injured.
With a long sigh, Saab and his son, Eli Jr., repeat a common expression derived from the family name, and the two men say, "It was a lot of difficult thing."
The Lebanese fashion designer experienced all the years of the civil war that ravaged Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 with its details and torments, as he lived in the Ain al-Rummaneh area at the seam lines in Beirut, but this time the experience was different for him.
The August 4 blast revived the civil war for Elie Saab, as he said: “We certainly went back to the same details, to the same smell, to dust, to glass. We did not love to live this thing, it is not necessary, and we had what we lived. ”
Like many Lebanese, the 56-year-old felt that the explosion was on his doorstep.
Despite the tragic scenes, Elie Saab sits watching his country, which was made of luxurious fabric and collapsed before his eyes, but today he announces the design of the dress of hope, removing the smell of destruction and dust, and does not let broken glass occupy the destroyed places.
Saab does not intend to go to Beirut and emigrate, as he says, “I am a picture of many Lebanese youth. I must be like Beirut, every time she sheds herself, rises from under the destruction, and returns sweeter than she was.
Saab fashion house, located in the center of Beirut, was not the only loss for him, as the lightning explosion destroyed his heritage home in the most affected area of Gemmayze.
Saab owns a traditional Lebanese house in the Gemmayzeh region, topped with heritage columns, dome archways, high ceilings, marble and arabesque tiles, and lit by rare and expensive chandeliers.
Repair work began at his huge fashion house in downtown Beirut, to restore work as it was before the explosion. At the same time, he intends to work on returning his home to what it was.
A television camera documented scenes of destruction and devastation in his house, as the force of the explosion destroyed all his belongings, so the arches and chandeliers were broken, the facades were removed, the balconies leaned on each other, and the marble mixed with the rubble.
In the folds of the scene of desolation, a velvet clothes hanger squirts, as if searching for her dresses from the rubble.
In another corner, an old music record by Fayrouz, titled "The Real Lebanon Is Coming," appears, split in two, and the names of her songs were destroyed, but Saab decides to return to the core of the song, to rebuild what the explosion destroyed.