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Syrian conflict hits home for Vancouver designer

Syrian-raised, Vancouver-based designer Mona Sultan cried for days after she saw the horrific images of three-year-old Alan’s lifeless body on the beach.
Style File 0910

Syrian-raised, Vancouver-based designer Mona Sultan cried for days after she saw the horrific images of three-year-old Alan’s lifeless body on the beach.

The photo sparked outrage around the world and became a symbol of the desperation Syrians face trying to escape violence and uncertainty.

“The image will never leave my head,” a weary Sultan says, recalling her reaction and knowing that most of her family is still in the country, living – somehow – with the ongoing violence that has plagued the region since an uprising began against the long-reigning Assad regime in 2011.

Sultan’s own parents’ patio was struck by a mortar, though they managed to avoid injury because they were on the other side of the apartment. As well, her father’s shoulder was hit by shrapnel after another mortar went off nearby while he was outside.

“That’s how they live every day,” says Sultan, a world away from the conflict, in the office of her charming Commercial Drive character home. “That’s their life.”

Still, her parents have stayed on in Damascus, which means Sultan’s daily morning ritual includes a check-in phone call to ensure they are safe.

Last week’s gut-wrenching image of the toddler on the beach may have woken up the world to the crisis, but Sultan has long been working to help displaced Syrians caught up in a conflict that is estimated to have cost 220,000 lives since it started.

Partial proceeds from the online purchase of her scarves (which range from $75 to $155) go toward the Canadian charity, A Heart for Syria, in support of Syrian refugees. Sultan wants to do even more to help.

Using samples from previous collections, the designer is making colourful fabric necklaces with on-trend tassels. She plans to launch the charitable necklace line in November and will donate all of the proceeds toward helping refugees.

One of Sultan’s most captivating silk scarf collections is a love letter of sorts to the city where she was raised. Called Of Dusk and Jasmine (Damascus is popularly nicknamed the City of Jasmine), the scarves’ rich floral prints were made using photographs of the Damascus cityscape and her brother’s garden in Syria. The collection was meant to be a symbol of healing, created while the country that housed the beautiful blooms was withering under the weight of war.

“I thought trying to create something that would let me look at [the photos] over and over again, would probably help me…just mourn it,” says Sultan.

Sultan was born in Iran in 1979, two weeks before the revolution. Her parents fled to Syria on one of the last planes out, where the family lived a relatively quiet middle-class life.

Sultan left Syria at 19 to study graphic design in Lebanon. Later, she met her Canadian camera operator husband while working on a film.

When Sultan moved to Canada, she couldn’t work initially, so she started eagerly taking printing courses. Recalling her childhood dream to be in fashion and her love of scarves, Sultan decided to make her own line of scarves, which were hard to find in Vancouver.

There were plenty of bulky ones for keeping warm, but none of the colourful, quality accessorizing pieces that she wore back home.

So Sultan merged her love of printmaking and quality scarves to create her namesake line. Each silky design – whether it features warm florals or this fall’s latest line of rock ’n’ roll fringed bandanas – is a reflection of her eclectic background.

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