What we wear to cover our nakedness is an intimate reflection of who we really are. Where we shop and the clothes we select are telling of our values, our taste and even the person we aspire to be. But what if someone else has made that exact same choice you thought was so special? No one wants to walk into a party wearing the same outfit as someone else, and in today’s world of mass production a high price tag does not in any way afford rarity. What people covet more than anything is individualism and authenticity. To put it bluntly, having an It Bag no longer makes you special; it makes you a copycat.
On a rainy Friday morning in January, we meet Pascale Habis in her meticulous and palatial Gemmayze home, which also serves as her atelier and office, where she is turning a pair of woollen culottes inside out. The lining is rich and soft, the stitching perfectly even. “With certain designer brands you turn the clothes inside out and it’s a mess, loose threads and no lining,” she says. “The insides of our clothes are as good as brands that cost three times as much.”
Habis and her collaborators have envisaged their brand, Diamondogs, as an anti-luxury conglomerate. “I’m very irritated by this notion of what luxury is today, which is a supermarket. It’s very abusive — buy, buy, buy. Diamondogs is not a fashion brand. It’s clothes. The idea is to present a woman with timeless pieces.” She speaks reverentially of the garde-robe, a practice that originated in France in the fifteenth century, whereby designers would come to ladies’ estates and create all their clothes for the upcoming season. “There’s an elegance to buying a few pieces, and wearing and re-wearing them. It’s so nice when someone says ‘I love your blouse’ and you say ‘I’ve had it for ten years. I’ve worked in it, I’ve partied in it, I’ve lived in it.’”
The culottes in question — masculine wool gabardine cut into swingy, feminine A-line trousers — are one of twelve pieces that comprise Diamondogs’ first collection. There is another pair of trousers, high-waisted with a wide leg, a dress, a coat, three tops for three different occasions, and a few suede and leather handbags alongside other accessories. The pieces are whimsical rather than trendy, referencing the glamorous stars of decades past such as Greta Garbo, Stevie Nicks and Bianca Jagger, yet feeling utterly modern. A capsule collection of silver and gold rings and bracelets, designed by her longtime friend Walid Akkad, sold out immediately, before she even had time to photograph them. “Walid is very talented, and he has my mentality. He has standards and won’t prostitute himself — he refuses some clients,” she asserts.
Contrary to what you might assume, Habis’ background is in graphic design; she helms the project as creative director but outsources the clothing, bags and accessories to a roster of friends chosen on the criteria of shared values. Nathalie Khoury, one of her best friends, makes the bags — “I always knew she would do the bags” — while Beirut-based designer Bashar Assaf was put in charge of the clothing, Habis says, because she was “captivated by his collaborative personality”. The spirit of Diamondogs seems connected to a desire by Habis to fully commit herself to a project. “I’m not a perseverant person,” she admits with a chuckle, “but this is the first time I’ve started something that I intend to continue as a long-term project. I’m inspired by what I’m doing, the artistic and cultural aspects of it; it will always be interesting to me.”
