CHAPTER 9. COLLECTION STORY
As we move towards celebrating our tenth anniversary, this chapter is a chance to look back at our journey of nine years, told through the eyes of the hoopoe bird. This is a tale about flying and falling, about pain and hope, and what it means to care so deeply that, just as you shape your work, your work also shapes you.
This chapter is the hoopoe's story.
'A Flight of a Hoopoe' is a tale about what it means to give a piece of your soul to your work. It is a story of growth that moves through the sharp struggles and astounding beauty of living creatively, for it is only when you are flying that you realise you can fall.
Our story crosses continents but remains deeply entangled in the roots of Mount Lebanon. These roots appear in this chapter through earthy tones, with feathers and capes the colour of hoopoe birds; faded auburn plumage sits alongside striking black and white wings. Red marks a startling appearance in this chapter, the vibrant colour of life-force. Red represents the piece of me which is given to this work, the colour of broken wings, of crocheted velvet muscles, the colour of profound love and care which shapes all we do at Salim Azzam.
Our hoopoe is reimagined here at rest, in flight, with friends, wings spread across velvet jackets as grapes blossom at night. The hoopoe's sunlit crown rises in dance, the meticulously embroidered tips a deep black. Five swans, one for each founding female artisan, adorn a midnight wool jacket.
This collection features pivotal looks that explore the profound act of pouring yourself into your craft, the physical and emotional toll of creation, the broken feathers and strained muscles, the ascents and descents of the artistic journey. These pieces narrate the creative director's path through struggle and transformation. In startlingly soft faux-fur feathers, the finest cotton and exquisite silk, this chapter reveals the creative spirit at its most vulnerable and at its most powerful. Looks are adorned with bows and arrows, blood-red crochet brooches, and delicate tatting.
This is what it means to create: to break, to bleed, and still to fly.
We close our chapter with love; the key to everything.
This collection carries profound symbols of connection and resilience. Exquisitely embroidered angels honour the friends who lift us when we falter, who celebrate with us when we soar. The swans represent the remarkable women artisans who have joined the Salim Azzam atelier, our little flock growing with each season, shown here gracefully resting upon a silk-white lake. Pinprick stars in our galaxy shower a night-black dress in light, this look recognises that it is only in the darkness that we can see the stars.
As we look toward celebrating our tenth anniversary, we honour this milestone, which is only possible through embracing the times we fall and the times we fly.