Bil Arabi reflects beauty of Arabic letter

Lebanese designer Nadine Kanso is an artist photographer, a jewelry designer and a cultural entrepreneur. She represents the bi-coastal reality of many Arabs today — a reality that informs her work as both a photographer and a jewelry designer.

Kanso is someone who likes people and is inspired by them. She is creative; you will find her constantly looking for something different all the time and thinking out of the box.

“I am a woman who is proud of her identity, language and heritage, and who has strong sense of her Arab nationalism,” she said.

In 2006, Kanso started her jewelry-designing career with a one-off experiment that merged Kanso’s background in design, her love for typography and predilection for all things bling bling. The result was the Arabic “noon” or the equivalent of the letter “N” in Arabic. Using 18-carat gold and embellished with semi precious stones, the ring — entirely handcrafted and designed — was a hit and soon enough, one letter led to the whole alphabet, which evolved to complete words and eventually full phrases. People began expressing themselves in Arabic and that’s what she named her brand, Bil Arabi, Arabic for “In Arabic”.

We spoke to Kanso to learn more about her jewelry line, the brand and her future plans.

What first got you interested in jewelry and fashion?
I am interested in fashion because I love designs, the stories of designers and the thinking process. I am not a fashion designer, I am an artist, a photographer and happened to become a jewelry designer after creating my line Bil arabi, meaning literally In Arabic.

Original article by Rima Al-Mukhtar

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Bil Arabi reflects beauty of Arabic letter