Early this month, as Paris Fashion Week was winding down, Cynthia Merhej transformed her apartment into a showroom and put as brave a face as possible on a situation that already was challenging and only has gotten worse since. “When things are bad, it’s good to have something to throw yourself into,” said the Beirut-based designer. “We’re very grateful to have distraction from the reality of things, and fashion is a great distraction.”
By the same token, fashion has always been a formidable vehicle for resistance. A year ago, as war broke out in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, Merhej said she sought to counter anxiety and depression by designing clothes that would be light and liberating. Parachute material, sourced from an Italian mill specializing in technical fabrics, offered timely inspiration. As she manipulated it, the designer realized that the material could resemble flowers, poppies in particular. The work of Robert Mapplethorpe attracted her, and from there down a rabbit hole she went, discovering along the way that the flower was a popular symbol of Palestinian resistance in the 1970s and ’80s.
For spring, the twin ideas of poppies and parachutes resulted in some charming pieces that somehow managed to blend military references and nostalgia-tinged romance. A pointillist camouflage, for example, here appears as an asymmetrical cascade of a denim skirt or as an ample top with an origami-like flower detail. A new iteration of a house signature, a fitted dark green jacket with barrel sleeves, and a couple of shirred off-the-shoulder tops looked simple yet special. So did some poppy-hued numbers in varying degrees of sheer, for example a parachute skirt trailing harness details or a shirtdress with a tulle overskirt embroidered with droopy blooms.
A short draped white dress with a low-slung black cummerbund resembled a deflated variation on the Limi dress that Chloé Sévigny chose for a red carpet appearance last summer, which doubled as a pre-release nod to the costumes Merhej produced for
the actress’s latest film, Bonjour Tristesse.
Considering the global context and the size of the Renaissance Renaissance team—Merhej, her mother, a seamstress, and goodwill from all over—spring also offers up an object lesson in agility and resilience. “For me, success is less a financial question than one of doing right by the environment, making sure the people on the team are happy, and making interesting, creative products,” the designer said. By that measure alone, this outing was a win.