Time Out at 40

Ellie Saab
A major figure in international haute couture, he has dressed some of the word's biggest stars, most notably Halle Berry, yet throughout his career Ellie Saab has remained faithful to Lebanon and the women of Beirut who first inspired him.

Who is your hero?
Valentino. Always. I like beauty and designers who respect women, he is the model of a good designer and inspires me. His clothes are for a cultivated person; she is not an object.

What is the future for your country/profession?
Obviously I see the news every night and in my mind I want peace for my country but I don’t really think about politics. The big problem, the really dangerous one for Lebanon, is that all the young generation leave. I try to stop that: 95 per cent of young new designers in this country have come through my company. I encourage people and if Ellie Saab means anything it is to serve as an example of what is possible.

What is your favourite place or thing in Beirut?
The women. I come from outside Beirut, but I was always impressed by their elegance and style. It affected me from an early age; when I was at school I used to criticise the dresses my teachers wore because I knew, even then, that they could look better. Feature continues

Bernard Khoury
Lebanon's most famous architect-cum-designer has re-imagined his city and his country since he returned from Harvard University in the 1990s. A hero to many – us included – Khoury finds himself at odds with the post-Civil War reconstruction of historic Beirut.

What is your favourite place in Beirut?
Well the building my father made for his design company is special to me... but the nightclub BO18 has had a big effect on my career. When I first came back from Harvard I was intelligent, but I had learnt nothing. I had 16 projects that were abandoned then, after three years, and by accident I was given this commission for BO18 [an underground nightclub with a sliding roof]. If you had told me about it when I was still at Harvard I would have quit, but this project, this most vulgar of nightclubs, represents many of the things I believe in. It wasn't government money, it was private money, a commercial project and that is where true creativity lies today. 

What is the future for Beirut?
I am not interested in trying to revive noble nineteenth-century projects like the reconstruction in downtown Beirut did. I'm not interested in the past or the future. I am interested in now. What people call the vulgar and the crap are the future.

Beirut is...
Beirut is fantastic. It has fantastic mechanism of survival. You learn to believe in it.

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