In the space of a few devastating seconds, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history destroyed Sarah Beydoun’s beloved flagship boutique and atelier as well as her home. Ripping through the Lebanese capital on 4 August 2020, it left an already ailing city shattered. For Beydoun, August was meant to be a better month after the pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Her business, Sarah’s Bag, a social enterprise and luxury fashion house, had just started to adapt and recover when the explosion wrecked the brand’s painstaking efforts to stay afloat.

Despite the setbacks and challenges, Beydoun and her team managed to navigate the aftermath of the explosion by focusing on international sales through the brand’s online boutique, sarahsbag.com. Sarah’s Bag also teamed up with Mastercard to dream up the Priceless Collection, a stunning line of handcrafted clutches and handbags launched and sold exclusively at Expo 2020 Dubai. The collection features bags inspired by Mastercard’s motto and aesthetic (red for passion,yellow for optimism) and others that draw on Sarah’s Bag’s Middle Eastern heritage. All the intricate, decorative elements of the bags are handmade by the artisans who form the backbone of Sarah’s Bag: female prisoners, ex-prisoners and underprivileged women. In the twenty-two years since the founding of the brand, Sarah’s Bag has become synonymous with the spirit, creativity and entrepreneurial essence of Beirut.

Read the full interview in the book here