Sarah’s Bag creates exquisitely crafted purses while helping formerly imprisoned women lead productive new lives.
Beiruti handbag purveyor Sarah Beydown launched her namesake label back in 2000 as a way to combine her love of fashion with an intense desire to help her community. While working on her Master’s thesis about prostitution, she was introduced to female prisoners and wanted to give them opportunities to work and be productive members of society. After teaching the women how to bead, Beydown began painting designs on canvas and passing them off to the inmates, who would embellish the artworks by hand. She would then have the pieces constructed into handbags. When her initial stock quickly sold out at a local craft market, she knew she was onto something.
Today, Beydown employs 150 women artisans (many of whom are former prisoners) who hand bead, embroider and crochet all of the company’s bags and accessories. The creation process is so meticulous that it takes 10-20 hours produce a single piece and only 300 can be produced a month. Designs range from Western-inspired pop culture to more traditional Lebanese themes and are always injected with more than a dash of kitsch. The current collection includes beaded Lichtenstein-style comic graphics, graffiti inspired by a found wall in Beirut, and a kaleidoscopic print of Egyptian singer Umm Kaltoum as imagined by Warhol.
All images courtesy SarahsBag.com