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17 March 2023
Courier Weekly provides inspiration and tools to help you work better and live smarter.
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Brought to you this week by Grand Seiko.
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Your weekly round-up of briefings, trends and news.
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‘It's heaven and hell’
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When Yasmeen Mjalli, 26, gets up one morning in early March, the sky above her is still an orangey-blue. She begins a three-hour drive south from her studio in Ramallah, Palestine, to the bottom of the West Bank.
She's meeting with craftswomen who are working on a collection of handwoven wool bags for her fashion label, Nöl Collective. From shearing sheep to weaving wool, the women do everything themselves. But the dwindling numbers of people still practicing this form of Bedouin weaving, traditionally passed down from mother to daughter, means it took two years to bring these bags to life. Why wait? Because Yasmeen wants all of her label's clothing to be made in Palestine.
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Keeping crafts alive
When it comes to starting a business, the West Bank and Gaza rank 173rd out of 190 world economies, according to financial institution the World Bank Group. And, as Israeli-Palestinian tensions ramp up once again, that's only getting more difficult.
But, for Yasmeen, it's a source of pride to be able to keep clothing production within the borders of her native Palestine. ‘We have a very rich history of weaving, of natural dyeing, of embroidery – and it's not well-known,’ she says. If no one keeps the flame alive, Yasmeen worries it could die out.
Nöl Collective works at the intersection of Palestinian culture, social justice and feminism. Initially launched two and half years ago as a community of female survivors of sexual assault and abuse, the label partners with local women's co-operatives, family-run sewing workshops and artisans, with the aim of keeping clothing production local.
Raised between Palestine and the US, Yasmeen moved permanently to Palestine six years ago. Having always spent time in the region, moving to the West Bank was something she felt compelled to do.
‘It's heaven and hell,’ Yasmeen says, ‘for every horrible thing that happens, there are more beautiful things that you really can't see anywhere else.’
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Weaving in the community
For Yasmeen and the small number of other fashion designers still in Palestine, one of the main challenges is the lack of resources and skilled workers in the area. But, by partnering with local co-operatives and workshops, Yasmeen has been able to tap into skills across the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, where unemployment hovers around 50%.
For example, one of Nöl Collective's jackets is made from cotton sourced from Al-Khalil (the Arabic name for the city of Hebron), then cut and sewn in a workshop in the Askar refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus. The workshop is owned by three brothers who sew every piece themselves. Finally, the jacket is hand-embroidered at a third-generation family sewing workshop in Ramallah.
The label works with Majdalawi fabric, a cotton textile that's formed a central part of traditional Palestinian cultural dress for centuries. It hails from the Gaza region and takes its name from Al-Majdal, a Palestinian village (now a part of Ashkelon in Israel) that was depopulated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The fabric has only been revived in the past 20 years.
Despite her work with producers in Gaza, Yasmeen has never been granted a permit to enter the area – separated by the border, they collaborate by phone and email.
Working under these conditions means that Yasmeen has a much deeper connection with the producers she can meet with in person. ‘Every single sewing workshop that I work with, I feel like either a daughter, a sister or a granddaughter,’ she says. ‘I go and have coffee or lunch or breakfast with them.’
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Our top five stories online
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Inspiration for the home, plus things to eat, drink and wear.
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Put your mind at rest
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Level up your wellbeing with these mindfulness-boosting products.
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Out of sight, out of mind is literally how Stolp works. It looks like a butter dish that covers your phone, but it's built using behavioral science principles to help you go distraction-free. |
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Mudita is a tech company that's aimed at bringing balance to people's lives through its products. Its bare-bones phone has an e-ink display and only has functions for calls, texts, music and a meditation timer. |
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Breathing exercises are important but tough to get right. Lungy is an app that recognizes and responds to your breathing, making practices more useful and engaging. |
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The Positive Planner helps you build habits into your life, offering an all-in-one place to record daily thoughts, stretching practice and art therapy. |
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Is there a brand you love that you want to share?
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BRAND PARTNER: Grand Seiko
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Innovating beautifully
Grand Seiko's exclusive spring drive movement took its takumi artisans nearly 30 years to develop and is the signature of its watchmaking. A smooth-gliding second hand – made possible through the hybrid of mechanical and electronic engineering – is the clue to the brand's ceaseless pursuit of absolute perfection.
Discover Grand Seiko
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Tips and tools to become better at life and work.
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Spice up your advertising
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Sometimes, it takes two to tango. Sexual wellness and condom company HANX cuddled up with some brands that it might not otherwise pair with for a recent Valentine's Day campaign. These unconventional collabs saw the company hook up with a cereal brand on the London Underground and get into bed with an alcohol-free beer company. Here HANX's co-founder, Farah Kabir, shares how two became one.
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Court. A small brand like HANX is unlikely to be able to compete with a major competitor like Durex on marketing spend. ‘We have to get creative and think outside the condom box,’ says Farah. So, she reached out to the founders of some brands whose tone of voice aligns with HANX. ‘Partnering with like-minded brands who are at a similar stage to us, who are also willing to push the boundaries, has worked really well,’ she says. |
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Communicate. Iron out who's going to do what and when. According to Farah, two smaller brands would usually split costs down the middle. For its campaign on vaginismus (an involuntary tensing of the vagina, if you didn't know), HANX was able to get a big agency to bankroll most of the campaign because of the importance of the issue. Marketing or PR agencies can help amplify stories through paid ads or by speaking to the press. |
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Procreate. For its guerilla marketing campaign with cereal brand Surreal (‘Surreal: great for spooning, HANX: great for forking’) and alcohol-free beer brand Days (‘better sex or your money back’), everything from light mockups to scripting social-media posts was done in unison. According to Farah, regardless of who comes up with the idea, it has to be something you're both comfortable putting out to the world on your platforms. |
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Cultivate. A collaboration is a relationship of sorts, so treat it that way, says Farah. ‘It's a two-way thing. You can't expect to just reap the rewards with a partnership and not give back to the other [side].’ According to Farah, mutual respect is one of the most important fundamentals of any successful collaboration. That means staying committed and putting money behind campaigns if they need a boost. |
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