Selma Roth Saudi Gazette The year 2002 saw the birth of an idea to introduce fashion sense and creativity to the Saudi traditional attire or ‘thobe', which many trendy men felt was lacking the elegance and style that they would like to express with their clothes. The idea by Loai Naseem grew out to a brand that was launched to the public three years later. The Lomar thobes have now become a favorite among Saudi men all over the Kingdom. They have literally redefined thobes by combining tradition and modernity and have succeeded in making men wear their national attire with pride. Nearly a decade later, Naseem had another desire. Seeing how much waste the production of thobes generated – including leftover fabrics, buttons, and cardboard tubes – the Lomar founder and CEO wanted to raise awareness towards recycling and eco-friendly designs while applying his ‘redefined thobes' concept into the private sphere of people's homes. Several meetings and brainstorming sessions with Nina Parvaresh later, an architect he had met through an event he Naseem sponsored, the idea of redefining homes by designing a line of furniture was born. The first 14 pieces of furniture that came out from this idea were presented recently during the DecoFair exhibition in Jeddah. “Lomar home redefined is a collaborated project between a designer team in Paris and Lomar thobe brand in Jeddah,” Parvaresh, managing director of design agency Concept Me, explained after the launch of the furniture range, which is “based on the resources of the factory and inspired by the thobe itself from its raw matter to its finished product”. This resulted in tables with cardboard tubes; a pendant light inspired by the thobe collar; chairs with the backrest filled with buttons, zippers, and fabric shreds; and lit the sleeve, a tripod foot lamp inspired by the thobe sleeve. Parvaresh, an Iranian woman who was born and grew up in Paris, France, said the project was “a real challenge” for her and her Concept Me team: “This is a very unique product for us, because most of us are architects and it is the first time we're really producing furniture (…) with very specific materials.” The entire process – from designing to manufacturing and solving technical issues – took two years. Parvaresh: “Our initial idea was to try to produce here in Jeddah, but we couldn't find any good manufacturer to get the quality we wanted. We loved the project and wanted to take it to a bigger level.” So eventually, she went to China and developed a team of designers there to provide a link between the manufacturer and the Concept Me team. “We hired designers there who were also technicians and were very skilled people, so they were not just there to execute but as well to work with the Paris team and to find solutions together,” said Parvaresh, demonstrating the challenge of finding the right angles of the 10 cardboard tubes used for the Mikado dining table to produce a steady yet playful result. Naseem, who was not directly involved in the project, said he was very happy with the outcome. He said he admired the “simple and creative ways” the products were inspired by Lomar factory. Initially, Naseem was thinking to hire a Saudi graduate interior designer, but “when I met Nina (Parvaresh) I changed my idea. I like the idea of having Saudi ideas designed by a French architect,” he commented on the collaboration with Parvaresh. For the time being, the Lomar furniture range can be found on their website, lomar.sa, but will soon also be available in Lomar stores in Jeddah, Riyadh and Alkhobar.
