Sarah’s Bag’s ‘Love, Lebanon’ Draws on the Country’s Everyday Icons

This August, Sarah’s Bag unveiled Love, Lebanon, its latest collection devoted to the country it calls home. Since its inception in 2000, Sarah's Bag has been designing high-end handbags in Beirut, with much of the work carried out by women artisans across Lebanon. The label is a social enterprise; its unique beading and embroidery designs are produced through the efforts of more than two hundred women across Lebanon.

Sarah Beydoun, founder and creative director of Sarah’s Bag, launched the label after conducting fieldwork for her sociology degree with Dar Al Amal, an NGO supporting at-risk women and former female prisoners in Beirut. Many of the women she met went on to become artisans for the brand, including those behind the pieces in ‘Love, Lebanon’.

“The collection is a tribute to a country that has the extraordinary ability to break your heart and yet inspire you to fall in love with it, again and again,” Beydoun says. It began taking shape in January 2026, before the latest war in Lebanon erupted in March, and work has not stopped since. “When war broke out, there were moments where continuing felt wrong, and others when it became obvious that loving this country and holding onto it was enough of a reason to keep going,” she says.Love, Lebanon showcases Lebanon through its icons, including Raouché, the cedar tree, old tourism posters, local cuisine, and being able to ski in the mountains and swim in the sea within the same day.

For the first time, Sarah’s Bag introduces a purse with a kiss-lock closure inspired by the classic 1920s beaded evening purses. Two versions of it turn familiar Lebanese symbols into collectibles. The Grotte Aux Pigeons Purse renders Raouché, the rock arch off Beirut’s corniche, the way people in the city actually catch sight of it, from a car window, in traffic or while walking by the sea. Each one is beaded entirely by hand over 22 hours. Its companion, the Cedar Purse, turns the cedar tree from Lebanon’s national flag into a hand-beaded collectible.

A run of tote bags looks further back, reproducing vintage Lebanese travel posters of the old Beirut Port, Aley and Baalbeck. The posters come from the Philippe Jabre Foundation and are reproduced with the permission of Lebanon’s Ministry of Tourism. Alongside these vintage postcards are small icons of everyday life; the collection includes a line of bag charms inspired by Lebanese shorthand, from decorated camions and Bonjus cartons to kaakeh, the sesame rings of bread sold from street corner carts in Beirut, and manooshe, za'atar flatbread.

The collection is on sale now on the Sarah’s Bag website and at its boutique in Tabaris, Beirut.