Saving loom weaving

It was the year 2001. Noor was waiting for the weaver at the porch of the old house. It was a beautiful day in Lebanon's short spring season. The neighbour had welcomingly offered her a glass of water and some delicious and juicy apples.

Fifteen minutes later, she heard some light footsteps in the background… She turned and saw a beautiful lady in a black dress making her way to the house. A few steps… "Ahlan wa sahlan" she warmly smiled and invited her to the upper floor where she and her brother spend hours weaving on the loom.

The purpose of Noor's trip was a design project she was working on, aiming to promote the craft of loom weaving and increase awareness about it amongst Lebanese and foreigners at home and abroad. 

After introducing Noor to her brother, a highly skilled artisan in this longstanding local craft, she started to show her woven pieces of fabric, one after the other. She got fascinated. The colours, the patterns, the quality… She was touching the precious materials and carefully listening to her, explaining the process of loom weaving... A laborious and meticulous process that takes hours and hours to produce a small stretch of cloth. She then tells her the story of their late father. A master artisan who was awarded the UNESCO prize for the crafts industry in Paris back in 2000.

This day has deeply marked Noor… She learnt that loom weaving in Lebanon was a dying craft that younger generations were not interested in investing their time in. Today, there are probably only three artisans remaining across the country. They are not young and when the day shall come and they leave this earth, no one would have learned the secrets of their craft.

Many years later, with the birth of her accessories label, Noor decided to try and do something about it. Perhaps not by producing the traditional designs but by injecting this craft with a new breath of life, by experimenting with it…

And so the handmade collection of noorsaab was born. The fabric, made of the finest fibres and lovingly woven by the hands of the lovely lady in the black dress, has travelled all the way from the Shouf mountains in Lebanon to London. It was then expertly hand printed in the UK with modern arabesque patterns.

The result is limited edition scarves that are unique, delicate, precious and outstanding, produced with the ultimate cross cultural expertise and carrying the value of long established craft heritages.