Palestyle: Clutches for a cause

Ask her why and she promptly explains: “Palestyle has become one of the industry’s most recognised fashion brands today. But for every Palestyle design that is endorsed, a woman in a Palestinian refugee camp is being empowered.”

Of Palestinian origin herself, Zeina launched Palestyle along with her brother Ahmad Abou Chaaban five years ago. An alumna of the American University of Dubai, she gave up her job as a logistics planner with a prestigious corporate to find her social calling after a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut where she was inspired by the embroidery crafts of some women.

The result was the fresh concept Palestyle which not only provides refugee women with embroidery job opportunities but also ploughs back a percentage of the sales into development projects in these camps.

“This is what gives us a social edge,” says Zeina, taking pride in the purpose behind the purses which are sold in such high-end department stores as Bloomingdales, House of Fraser and Etoile and seen on celebrities like Eva Longoria and Gwyneth Paltrow. “We’ve empowered over 100 refugee women by providing them with embroidery job opportunities. Not just that, over 4,000 refugees benefit as five per cent of our sales goes into social projects like the water tank exchange programme and olive tree plantation programme in the camps.”

Original post by Sharmila Dhal