2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Al Lamees designs is a business owned by Palestinian / Jordanian entrepreneur, Lamees Khalifeh, who revives her homeland heritage and culture with unique and authentic handcrafts and women’s wear designs that she produces with nothing but her needle and thread. She carries out exhibitions with the release of every new collection. In May 2012, she wanted to capture the attention of niche fashion boutique owners and showcase the authenticity and creativity of her new line and therefore find a place on their shelves.

Creative Execution

Our invite reflects the Palestinian heritage and pride present in all Khalifeh’s designs, through the use of traditional Palestinian textile (kufiyyeh), embroidery and Arabic poetry. Furthermore, the tailor’s wooden box / kit is the base she relies on to create her authentic designs.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We researched the top 10 boutiques in Dubai that would highly consider such authentic designs. We wanted our invite to reflect Khalifeh’s unique design style and show how with just her needle and thread, she revives memories from her homeland by embroidering Arabic poetry on traditional Palestinian textiles. We delivered what looked like a tailor’s wooden box/kit. On opening it, the invitees saw a wooden thread roll wrapped with a ribbon, made of the traditional Palestinian headdress material (Kufiyyeh) pinned up with a needle. On unrolling it, they discovered an embroidered invitation, written in Khalifeh’s own poetic words.

Results

The event was a big success. 7 out of the 10 Boutiques attended the exhibition. 2 of them agreed to stock and display the Al Lamees Collection in their boutiques. One of them agreed to showcase and promote Al Lamees communication in their Boutique. Pleased with the results, Lamees Khalifeh continues to use the box invitation with a simple change in Date and Time for various exhibitions.