This Friday 21 August, Mostafa Al Sous will be at Palestine House, showing off the artful designs of his ATHR project and raising money for the individuals whose stories have helped to inspire the collection. We spoke to the designer and textile artist about his ‘Our Families Between the Lines’ collection and the importance of crafting a brand with impact.

How would you describe ATHR?

ATHR is a non-profit fashion and textile project that uses clothing, textiles and craft as a way of holding, translating and sharing personal stories. It explores how fashion can become a space for memory, healing, connection and conversation.

Tell us about the foundations of ATHR.

ATHR was founded in 2021. The name means ‘trace’ or ‘impact’ in Arabic – the traces that experiences leave on us, and the possibility of transforming those traces into something tangible. From the beginning, the ethos has been rooted in storytelling, textile experimentation, sustainability, upcycling and preserving craft traditions, while creating space for conversations around trauma, identity, family, memory and queerness. The project is also about creating meaningful connections between people and communities across different contexts.

What led you to fashion?

I come from Saida, Lebanon, and my parents both work with traditional crafts. My father works with glass and glass painting, while my mother works with crochet. Growing up surrounded by handmade objects, materials and techniques had a strong influence on me. I began teaching and engaging with crafts as a teenager, and over time textiles became a language through which I could express things that are difficult to communicate through words. And then I went on to study fashion design at Creative Space Beirut. For me, fashion was never only about designing clothes. I became interested in what a garment can carry – a memory, a feeling, a personal history, or something that has remained unspoken.

What are you expressing through the ‘Our Families Between the Lines’ collection?

The project brings together personal narratives from London, Lebanon and Tunisia and explores the things that connect us despite geographical and cultural differences – family, love, grief, memory, silence and identity. I collected stories from people in each place – in particular the creative community in Tunisia – and translated elements of their experiences into garments and textile pieces that create a dialogue between them. The collection is part of ATHR’s wider purpose of creating spaces where personal stories can be shared with care, and where artistic expression can be connected to real forms of support.

What kinds of textile experimentations are you exploring?

I work with techniques including weaving, dry and wet felting, batik, natural dyeing, shibori, crochet, knitting, and different forms of textile manipulation and upcycling. I am interested in taking traditional techniques and materials and translating them into contemporary forms. I also like allowing the process itself to remain visible – the knots, irregularities, marks, layers and imperfections can become part of the story of a piece.

Craft is important to me because it carries knowledge and memory. In Lebanon and across the region, there are textile and craft traditions that are slowly disappearing, and I want to contribute to keeping that knowledge alive while allowing it to evolve.

Tell us about your collaboration with Mosaic.

Mosaic is an organisation supporting the psychological and mental health aspect of the project. This collaboration matters because ATHR is not only interested in collecting and transforming people’s stories into art. We also want to create a space where these stories are approached with care and responsibility, and where the people sharing them can have access to appropriate psychological support.

Final words?

The late Reem Banna said:

“Leave an أثر in every person and every place.”

And this is where ATHR begins.