Noor Saab grew up in Lebanon, ‘Switzerland of the East’ they say… reputed for its beautiful and elegant women, glamorous haute couture fashion designers, but also a complex and chaotic political history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, from a very young age, she was intensely fascinated by abstract, orderly geometric patterns and structures. So much so, that the pages of her school copybooks were filled with them.
Many pages and many years later, she enrolled in the graphic design program at the American University of Beirut. One course in Arabic calligraphy opened up a whole new world to her… the world of arabesque, illuminations, calligraphy, miniature drawings, vibrant colours, divine geometry…
When she left Lebanon at 25 years old, alongside a huge suitcase, she carried, unbeknownst to her, another satchel full of relentless inspiration, knowledge, love and fascination, which unpacked itself slowly as she settled in what has now become her other home, London…
Being here, immersed in a city with a 1000 different faces, has brought back to her all the memories and visions that had shaped her youth, identity and personality back in Beirut, Lebanon… her great grandparents’ 100-year-old house with its arched porch and coloured windows, the arabesque iron gate across the road, a pattern of broken tiles engraved in her memory to this very day, the carved wooden doors down Gemmayze street, a textile pattern here and a cross-stitch embroidery there, the golden threads in her father’s abaya, the illuminated Arabic calligraphy sheets that decorated her grandmother’s house…
In short, a wealth of cultural heritage in a city forever embracing the future, anchored in its roots but expertly flirting with everything modern, with one eye looking inward and another one gazing at the rest of the world.
It is against this backdrop of experiences that you can begin to understand the essence of noorsaab accessories. A strong oriental identity engaging with a plethora of western influences, embracing the coexistence of opposites… the old and the new, the conservative and the rebel, the traditional and the modern, the solemn and the witty.