From Lebanon with love: the tale of label Renaissance Renaissance
One of the rising stars selected as part of NET-A-PORTER’s Vanguard mentorship program, CYNTHIA MERHEJ is a third-generation tailor whose fashion brand, RENAISSANCE RENAISSANCE, celebrates the duality of womanhood. In the spirit of supporting emerging talent, we invited the second-year fashion-journalism students of London’s Central Saint Martins to tell the Lebanese designer’s story
Crafting garments that consider both the playful and sophisticated facets of womanhood, Cynthia Merhej’s upbringing within her mother Laura’s Beirut atelier provides a framework for her designs. Selected as part of NET-A-PORTER’s Vanguard, Renaissance Renaissance is a must-know emerging brand.
Acutely aware of how her own growth has molded her into the designer she is today, Merhej is sensitive to the personal evolutions that happen throughout life. Renaissance Renaissance derives from this sentiment, as a brand that celebrates personal transformation. Merhej designs clothes that transcend these changes, by recognizing the duality of women; the fragility and the strength.
““It gave me an interesting way of linking people and clothes – this notion that women are very complex beings. We want to dress up, we want to be beautiful, because it makes us feel like we can take on the issues in our life”
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A third-generation tailor, Merhej’s role models are the women who raised her; her grandmother, a refugee, and her mother, who opened her own atelier in Beirut and imparted upon her daughter a knowledge of the craft. Merhej’s inherited talent has ensured that clothing is her natural language.
Merhej’s upbringing and ancestry are a poignant backdrop to her current work. Her great-grandmother owned a Palestine atelier, but she fled to Lebanon during the 1948 exodus and was too heartbroken to continue her practice. Merhej’s mother, the youngest of nine children, taught herself the craft, eventually opening her own atelier among the remnants of the Lebanese Civil War, which lasted from 1975 to 1990.
It was this upbringing that set Merhej on the path to Renaissance Renaissance. She describes waiting in the atelier every day after school, watching how “clients would come in, try on the clothes and then just sit and chat for hours”. In a way, Laura Merhej was “like a therapist” to her clients; her daughter recalls that “she had such an intimate relationship with [them]”.
The principle of life’s problems intersecting with the act of dressing would go on to shape the designer’s entire ethos. “It gave me an interesting way of linking people and clothes – this notion that women are very complex beings. We want to dress up, we want to be beautiful, because it makes us feel like we can take on the issues in our life.”
Now, Lebanon has been infiltrated by the big chains, such as McDonald’s, which have flooded the rest of the world; but when Merhej was growing up, “there wasn’t an abundance of things… there was really nothing”. She remains sensitive to excess as a result of her surroundings; the sustainable nature of her work was “really just a natural thing when you grow up never knowing what’s going to happen; it’s always unstable, you might have to flee your country, you might have to start over. You just learn to survive with what you have and what you need, and you learn how not to waste.” There is also something about the way she describes the concrete metropolis of the Beirut suburbs that leads one to wonder whether the opulence of Renaissance Renaissance’s garments were borne from this – resourceful yet fantastical.
Eventually, Merhej moved to London, where she studied graphic design and illustration at Central Saint Martins. “I really grew up in fashion – fashion production, couture and that whole world,” she says, “I never even thought, ‘I have to go study fashion’, because I had role models of women who started their own business and taught themselves how to make clothes.” Merhej was surprised by the cultural acceptance of overconsumption. “By the time I got to England, it was like, whoa, you go to the supermarket or you go to someone’s house and there’s just loads of stuff.” Merhej admitted, “This just wasn’t something I knew.”
““I’d be working 20 hours a day, going to the atelier at seven or eight. Then, after a full day in the atelier, I would go and DJ until midnight or 1am”
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Still, her time in London instilled in her a determination to continue communicating in her “language through clothes”, and she returned to Beirut to learn from her mother, who she describes as a “brutal” teacher. Merhej worked quickly to catch up with her 30 years of experience, while juggling other jobs to save money for her brand. “I’d be working 20 hours a day,” she says, “going to the atelier at seven or eight. Then, after a full day in the atelier, I would go and DJ until midnight or 1am.” The positivity of Mehrej’s clothes filtered into her music taste, too: “The most important thing for me was to help people discover new music and keep the mood upbeat. It could be electronic music, soul, pop, Arabic… anything.”
Finally, after two years of honing her skills and acquiring funds, Merhej launched Renaissance Renaissance. The name, she explains, comes from “the idea of evolving and being complex as a human being”. Renaissance is a French word that translates as ‘rebirth’; it is also a word that can be understood in various languages, tapping into the multilingual nature of Lebanon. Like Merhej’s clothes, Renaissance Renaissance is “something classical, which can stand the test of time”.
““I wouldn’t want anyone to stereotype me. I love reading, I’m opinionated, I can be aggressive, I’m all those things – that is what I’m thinking about when I’m designing”
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The result is fashion that honors a woman’s intellectual side; clothing that explores the wearer as a multi-faceted being. “I wouldn’t want anyone to stereotype me,” Merhej says. “I love reading, I’m opinionated, I can be aggressive, I’m all those things – that is what I’m thinking about when I’m designing.” She notes that the “cerebral” women who connect with Renaissance Renaissance empathize with the female experience and wisdom interwoven into Merhej’s dresses.
Merhej’s capsule collection, released exclusively on NET-A-PORTER, continues this empowering boldness. She was touched by female strength; by the notion that “women want to be beautiful. At the same time it doesn’t mean that we don’t have issues or a lot that’s happening in our minds.” It is a statement forged through Merhej’s upbringing and translated into craftsmanship and precise construction.
Although Merhej does not like to categorize her silhouettes as ‘feminine’ – “I think it’s for someone who wants to wear something like that without compromizing their intellect” – she wants women to feel confident in their own femininity through her garments. Why put yourself in a box? Renaissance Renaissance’s ruched dresses – the color of ballerina slippers – and hot-pink tulle shorts certainly do not conform to any timid ideas of womanhood.
Black hats frame the face and trail over the shoulders, and dresses in cotton and silk swathe the body through form-flattering gathering. There is a notable decadence throughout Merhej’s culottes, pooling around the knees like Tudor breeches, and her puffed sleeves, which bloom from the shoulders like tulips. Pair them with a simple white T-shirt to let your legs do the talking – add a beret for a flash of the Parisian summer.
““It’s just incredible to even be picked up by NET-A-PORTER, let alone be told ‘Hey, we want you in the Vanguard program!’ The magnitude is definitely not lost on me”
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Merhej’s references are constantly in flux, but rooted in the adoration of women. Working through a pandemic, her most recent collection was the product of long-distance communication – Merhej designed from Paris and conversed with her Beirut atelier. The distance has been challenging: “It’s weird because, normally, there is a very intimate relationship in the making of the clothes.” Despite the difficulty, Merhej remains dedicated to her craft with the help of the NET-A-PORTER team. “They’ve been exceptional in understanding the circumstances this year, not only with Covid but what happened in Lebanon.”
In January 2020, Renaissance Renaissance was selected to take part in the prestigious NET-A-PORTER Vanguard mentorship program. For emerging brands such as Renaissance Renaissance, the program has the potential to drastically alter the trajectory of success. Keenly aware of this, the designer explains: “It’s just incredible to even be picked up by NET-A-PORTER, let alone be told ‘Hey, we want you in the Vanguard program!’ The magnitude is definitely not lost on me.” In April 2021, eight new Renaissance Renaissance styles are launching exclusively on the NET-A-PORTER website.
Senior market editor Libby Page describes how the selection process works. “We take a number of things into consideration, but ultimately it comes down to items having a distinct design DNA that stands out among the other brands we carry.” Certain criteria are considered during the recruitment process, but Page discloses that “sometimes it can all come down to gut instinct and knowing when you have found a truly special brand”.
Vanguard mentees gain access to NET-A-PORTER’s extensive team of internal talent across the following sectors: buying, marketing, legal, social and studio styling. Additionally, each brand receives a coveted spot on the NET-A-PORTER site, acquiring invaluable exposure essential to the development of a self-sustaining brand. Although NET-A-PORTER welcomes a new class of Vanguard members every year, the program’s alumni retain their devoted attention and support as part of the NET-A-PORTER family. Once a Vanguard brand, always a Vanguard brand.
““We often find that behind great products are interesting designers with intriguing stories to tell, all from diverse backgrounds”
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There is a shared mission of empowerment between Renaissance Renaissance and NET-A-PORTER’s Vanguard. Merhej’s brand epitomizes the Vanguard endeavor to highlight emerging labels that focus on sentiments often neglected in the global fashion industry. While Page explains that “for us, product will always be the thing that immediately catches our eye”, NET-A-PORTER also seeks to be a platform not just for garments, but for stories. “We often find that behind great products are interesting designers with intriguing stories to tell, all from diverse backgrounds.”
The Vanguard initiative is new territory altogether – but one Merhej is excited to pioneer. While the renowned NET-A-PORTER site is vastly different from her mother’s intimate atelier in Beirut, it allows Merhej to develop Renaissance Renaissance as an international entity and forge a new path. Whether it’s Covid or worse, Merhej and her mother go on – family, after all, withstands everything.
The models featured in this story are not associated with NET-A-PORTER and do not endorse it or the products shown