Handmade pieces to empower women from all walks of life

Soraya Hachem and Cindy Charafeddine’s inspiring vision of customized and sustainable pieces

Dubai, UAE; 2021 – Timeless pieces, a love of fashion with color expressions and a lifelong friendship set the foundations that Soraya Hachem and Cindy Charafeddine built to create Beirut based brand Aquarel Studio. The pieces are unique and created to fit your body, and the work behind each piece also provides support towards Lebanese craftsmanship. With Fashion sustainability at the core of their vision, their main goal is to reduce fashion waste by producing unique and personalized pieces on demand.

With a background in architecture Soraya always keeps an eye on that special piece, magic enough to make a woman stand out, believing in an existing fine line between art, architecture and fashion, and a meeting point where bold colors and fabrics celebrate a woman’s body. With experience in the fashion arena on a ready to wear, haute couture and marketing front, Cindy’s minimalistic tastes with feminine lines pays homage to elegant sensuality while maintaining a “joie de vivre” of sophistication. Her ethos is all about the “right amount of contrast.” Together they are a dynamic force of boss, balance, and boldness.

The flow of fabric shimmers as it catches the light, liquid colors reflecting all over, like the bond two childhood best friends share, and a fashion inspiration that was found during a lockdown, bringing colors to life. The thoughts of Aquarel Founders Soraya Hachem and Cindy Charafeddine on the clothes and colors: “Our clothes do not take over one’s body or personality, but rather enhance and reveal one’s true embodiment. Similar to second skin, our designs offer elegant, sensual, timeless cuts that faithfully adapts and embraces every woman’s physique. Fabrics are an essential part of our art, we experiment with colors and materials in order to create exclusive and expressive prints that carry a story. It is crucial to us that every woman expresses herself through and has the freedom to adapt our pieces to their needs and aspirations.”

The journey of Aquarel Studio is also a tale of perseverance following the creation of the brand in July 2020, with a delay on the original launch day, August 4, 2020, a dark day for Beirut, which pushed the launch following the loss of the offices. On the 5th of September, the Coloressence collection was released, followed by the second collection Luminessence, on the 30^th November, 2020. The dark days that followed also brought forth a message of hope, survival, resilience, and a new collection was born, Wild Essence, Cruise 2022.

The Wild Essence collection is a celebration of the duality of a Woman, of the ability to be both sensitive and vulnerable yet strong and assertive. The pieces present a solid combination of structure, strong asymmetric cuts, high rise wide leg pants and blazers, giving masculine silhouettes and expressions, akin to a protective shield, contrasting the softness and delicacy of the fabrics.

Soraya and Cindy, Aquarel Studio founders share some thoughts on the Cruise 22 collection: ‘Wild Essence is a celebration of the Divine Feminine and an ode to our connection to Nature. With various sources of inspiration from Woman Deities to Nymphs and Amazons, every piece of this collection is an embodiment of the Forces of Nature. Following the rhythms of the Moon, the Sun, the Air, The Earth, Wild Essence invites you to the whirlwind emotions of Woman in their constant process of transformation and Re-birth.”

Created exclusively in house with hand tinted color gradients by a team of skillful craftsmen, the fabric prints seem to come alive, and the handmade accessories of gold-plated brass that accompany were also designed to be integrated into the clothing pieces. Warm earthy tones and cooler tints are merged beautifully in the collection, with nourishing Earth and Aerial colors uniting in empowering pieces.

From the collection we celebrate the star pieces, inclusive of the Sun Blazer, an orange/yellow or blue/green stunning oversized blazer with a slim peak lapel, and a low single button complete with power padded shoulders. The gradient tinted beads and sequins bring the colors and light to life in one stunning creation. Only the Moon Dress could possibly top the Sun Blazer, a fluid long sleeved dress with padded shoulders also available in orange/yellow or blue/green, with front gathering and an open back detail with hundreds of color gradient sequins and beads.

The look book collections are shared on the website, with an option to order a customized dress using a user-friendly method. After selecting a piece, an option to ‘Shop via personal shopper’ directs the shopper towards a form to add all information from color, material length etc. This is followed by a call from the team to assist further.  Color books accompany each piece as color symbolism is an important part of Aquarel studio’s signature. A palette of various colors in pure silk is proposed as particular “Essences” to be worn: named ‘Color Emotions’ where the buyer has the freedom to choose and experience various essences that resonate with their own feelings. All pieces are meticulously adapted to the client’s measures, taking approximately 5 to 7 days to produce a piece in the atelier, and ship locally in Lebanon or internationally.

With Empowerment as the theme behind all their pieces, elegance, uniqueness, and timeless cuts, the Wild Essence collection Invites you to take a walk into the depths of Nature and to follow our tribe into the dance of their whirlwind emotions.