A Youthful Spirit

As a young fashion designer of international fame, Basil Soda is a great dreamer for whom his art is above all a question of mood, freedom, talent, energy, and boldness. It was in the heart of his fashion house in Horsh Tabet that he received the team from Magazine Hebdo.

Only a few paces from the heavy traffic of the Sin el-Fil main road, we find ourselves deep in an atmosphere quite of its own, of calm, of relaxation, where green nature still finds a retreat. Facing the old residence known as the Palace of Noura, a building painted all white holds our attention. Modern, with no superfluity, and sober, it has lines that are pure. On one of its fronts, one may read the name Basil Soda. The door of the building is not immediately obvious. It is, in fact, a large glass front which allows one from first sight to get the feel of this Lebanese designer before penetrating into the inner sanctum. The interior follows the style of the exterior. Everything seems to breathe purity, open spaces with a modern touch. White, black, gray and metal are the only color tones used in the decoration, and they are reflected in the many mirrors disposed of in an endless number of ways.

The presence here of the fashion house of Basil Soda, set up only a couple of years ago, is symbolic in more than one sense. “While the district is well known, it has a private feeling, just like fashion itself,” explains the master. It has a natural environment to which is added the architectural concept of space. “One must go to the other side of the wall to get the feel of the inner surroundings, just as one has to see a woman well dressed in order to admire her.” The spacial architecture molds, reflects and creates the image of the brand. “We live in a time when architecture and fashion are intimately connected.” For this reason, Basil Soda has collaborated closely with an interior decorator to develop his fashion house, contributing seventy percent of the ideas.

Liberty of Movement

Architecture is a passion for Basil Soda, one of long standing. With his Science Baccalaureate in his hand, he signed on for Architecture at Holy Spirit-Kaslik University. Admittedly, his first and foremost love was for fashion, but at that time it was impossible for him to travel and there were in Lebanon no university faculties teaching the subject. “I had the idea that architecture was the field closest to what I wanted to do. In both domains, one starts with a concept and builds around it, for a robe has a structure, a volume and a geometry.” Accordingly, these were the basic principles that Basil Soda studied during the preparatory years of his studies at Kaslik. But he did not finish even the second year. CAMM, the Cours artistic de mode moderne, opened its doors and Basil Soda changed his specialization.

It was during our conversation that we learned that his parents had not been really keen about the whole idea, despite his enthusiasm having been derived firstly from his father, a tailor for men. “I often went with him to the factory and would work with him in the shop. I learned to tailor in the true meaning of the word.” And when Basil Soda speaks, his voice is tinged with emotion. “My father was one of those tailors whose career had been very difficult. He started work very young and finished by having his own business, something which at that time was not at all common. But he was different, and he helped me a great deal.”

When thirteen or fourteen years old, Basil Soda was making his first models, tailored suits for his mother or his friends at school. “I was fascinated by the sight of somebody sewing and I liked doing it myself. It has always been a pleasure for me. I like sewing for its being a craft, a work which relies above all on talent. That is how I started.”

When his studies were terminated, he began working in Beirut, and then went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, before coming back to Beirut, where about 1996 he joined up with the House of Elie Saab, working there four years. “That was a time when I enjoyed myself. I profited from my experience with Elie, perhaps because I never felt that I was an employee of his. We were on excellent terms, for he was more than a colleague, rather a friend or an elder brother.”

In the year 2000, Basil Soda started to work on his own account, soon gaining an international reputation. All through this time Basil Soda made the most of his experience, devoting himself to his art wholeheartedly, absorbing all he could, in his own way, not always very “orthodox”, he said. Considering that spending too long on sketching patterns was a waste of time, he went backward and forwards between the models, the mannequins, the tissues, the patterns, and the sketches, changing, adjusting, retouching and improving, alive and vibrating with his feelings, his freedom and his talent.

For Basil Soda this experience was vital, one which the Lebanese schools and institutes are codifying into a rigid academic system which runs the risk of confining the talent and potential of the students. “During the first stage, the student must be free, free to throw away, to destroy, to be somewhat mad and disordered. This freedom is important during the apprenticeship for the designer to discover his own personality. During a second stage, he works to form himself, to create his own rhythm, to acquire discipline, to see how to develop, persevere and be accepted by the clients.”

This is the way Basil Soda himself followed. “I know now where to find my natural self, even if the market demands something different. And this is the dilemma that wearies me.” Torn between his own promptings and the requirements of the market, the designer can break down under the permanent stress. “Everybody believes that it is all fun and games, but our profession is one of the most difficult in the world. There are moments of pleasure but the practice is not at all easy. We are called on for a production unending with ever new results, but our profession depends much on the mood of the moment. I would like always to dream, but life must be lived and dresses have to be sold.”

However, the designs of Basil Soda gained immediate acceptance. The reason is that he puts into his craft all his sensitivity, and feeling, which he transmits as a message both direct and subtle. One may add that he made his way in the fashion world very rapidly. From 2000 to 2005 Basil Soda was in Beirut. But when the situation in the country made life difficult, he carried his shows abroad. This was a new way of getting known on the international stage, a drive, an image that changes and involves a new way of seeing things. “When one goes abroad and dresses celebrities, one must not do it just for the prestige or to reinforce Lebanese snobbery, but rather to open oneself out and to accept all the criticism, negative and positive, taking all into consideration and working to make use of it.” According to Basil Soda, one must always be ready to look at oneself again. This is what allows him to come each morning with energy renewed.

Young people inspire.

Relaxed, unaffected, always young of heart, Basil Soda affirms that he often likes to do what he used to do when he still did not have money. “It is easy to be a show-off, but it is more difficult to live simply. That is what keeps me going, otherwise, I feel stifled, in a vacuum.” But the most important thing for Basil is the young, that Lebanese youth that people do not really consider, concerned as they are with such trifles as hommos and tabouleh and with useless politics. He likes to go out with young people. At the age of forty, he prefers to be surrounded by those who are younger than him or at least no older. “If I lose this feeling, this contact with the young, I lose much. My work also suffers. One must see how the young live and love. The difficulty of our job is that as we grow older our maturity brings change, while our profession is always linked to the young. My greatest source of inspiration is contacted with people, here or abroad. ‘Young vibes, this is where I want to be!’ And this is what enables me to remain full of life.”

When Basil Soda decides something, he does so without hesitation or thinking too much. It is all a question of taste, he just makes up his mind quickly, and this, he says, brings him relief whatever others may think. “I don’t care, I like to play around. And so what?” The favorite hobby of the designer is to go – alas! not in Lebanon but abroad! – to the bookshops and libraries looking for books, or to go to exhibitions concentrating mostly on contemporary art. “I look mostly for what is contemporary, related to new design, in order to feel the energy.” After, if time allows, he will have a glance at earlier art. Still enthusiastic about architecture, he keeps up with the latest novelties, the competitions which are opened, and the projects of the laureates. Nor does he see why he shouldn’t follow private classes in architecture, so as to always keep learning.

As for the question of whether his son Jad, now fifteen years old, will carry on the flame, Basil answer that he does not wish in any way to influence his son’s decision, leaving the choice to him and even encouraging him in any ambitions for the future. He likes to tell how at the age of eleven his son one day said that he would like to open a wine shop. Far from disagreeing, he bought his son a number of books about wine and took him along to sessions of wine-tasting – “for him to see what it is like in practice. That is how I manage with him. He is a friend rather than a son. We can discuss anything without any taboos. And I respect his opinions.” Whatever his son’s decision, Basil Soda will respect it, all the more so as the brand, Basil Soda will follow his son or any other person whom he forms to take up his business. “On that, I insist. The dressmakers who were before us have left us nothing (see the insert.) But I want my fashion house to carry on, for if it disappears in effect I will have done nothing.”

His view of women

“The Lebanese woman is aware of her femininity and respects it, more than any other woman. I, as a fashion designer, always like to see a woman being feminine. I don’t want her to disappear, and she is always present in my clothes. But I also like a woman to be strong, to be a little like a man, with a masculine side, to work, to be energetic and unaffected. Before going out in the evening she can keep on her day clothes and add some accessory, or change ballet shoes for court shoes. I see a woman as at the same time seductive and untouchable. One of the most delightful sensations is to see in a man’s face a tormenting desire to approach a woman while he does not dare to do so.”

What he thinks:

Relations between Lebanese: Basil Soda wonders why we cannot hold a Lebanese Fashion Week, and what is missing. “But the Lebanese has an inflated ego which means that he cannot live with another Lebanese. We have had whole generations of dressmakers, each one of whom has built up an empire. But none has left anything behind him beyond a good reputation, even when more of a craftsman than a creative stylist. The first to come out with the expression Lebanese Stylist was Elie Saab.”

The distinctiveness of the Lebanese stylists: “We have the tradition that every woman likes to be feminine. But we have gone too far in exploiting this criterion. One must have the courage to change, to evolve, to create an international language that yet preserves our roots. My aim is to change this image. We are not merely the “red carpet”, with a Siren woman clad in robes of the Arabian Nights. These are motifs that I have completely dropped in my second collection of ready-to-wear.”

Lebanon: We must not deceive ourselves, art needs stability; I remain here, but most of my clients are not Lebanese. I put on my fashion parades abroad, but I am present there. This is a set-up that suits me.”

Fashion designer Basil Soda opens a contemporary Couture Fashion House in the very heart of Beirut, marking ten years working and creating under his own name. Cut from a single block of sand-colored stone, its minimal façade and simple features invite you in, at once, to penetrate the secrets of couture.

Once inside, the store, basked in natural daylight, adorns a palette of grays. A play of mirrors diffracts all proportions projecting silhouettes, colorful dresses and architectural pieces outside their frames. A mise-en-abyme where reflections ricochet, echo one another and duplicate space to infinity… Time stands still to allow each client a suspended moment with every dress.

During his near-perfect career, Basil Soda studies architecture, fashion design and hat making in Beirut before moving to the Arabian Peninsula – where he masters the art of embroidery – he then joins Elie Saab as foreman.

Throughout the years and whatever the country, Basil Soda has always felt at liberty to create. His unique expertise at hand, he establishes, in 2000, his very own brand and Fashion House. From his new sanctuary, Basil Soda talks openly of his love of architecture, from which he has borrowed fine-cut lines, a unity of space and pure volumes. Architecture. A favorite subject and a constant source of inspiration.

Watching over every single Haute Couture creation pieced together in his new 800 m2 warehouse, Basil Soda creates each silhouette directly on the mannequin. Surrounded by his team, he converses daily with the matter, refines a cut, assists, confers… in a lair full of embroidery, Arabian Peninsula – where he masters the art of embroidery – he then joins Elie Saab as foreman. Throughout the years and whatever the country, Basil Soda has always felt at liberty to create. His unique expertise at hand, he establishes, in 2000, his very own brand and Fashion House. From his new sanctuary, Basil Soda talks openly of his love of architecture, from which he has borrowed fine-cut lines, a unity of space and pure volumes. Architecture. A favorite subject and a constant source of inspiration.

Watching over every single Haute Couture creation pieced together in his new 800 m2 warehouse, Basil Soda creates each silhouette directly on the mannequin. Surrounded by his team, he converses daily with the matter, refines a cut, assists, confers… in a lair full of embroidery, shimmering crystals and colorful cutouts. Perfectionism as an art.

Some 300 models leave the workshop every year, not including those seen in Paris during the Couture fashion shows. In 2010, an accessory and a ready-to-wear collection will be launched. A way for the Basil Soda Fashion House to introduce itself into a whole new world: that of the dynamic working woman. Somewhat elusive, she braves the day as she tackles the night. A ‘From Day to Night’ collection.

Basil Soda died of cancer on 30 March 2015, at the age of 47.