If his beginnings were rather traditional as he traveled to Paris in 1988 to join the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne then underwent trainings in the renowned Dior and Chanel fashion houses, what came next was rather unusual: it just happened “without planning” he states. In fact, his career path is marked by strokes of happy concurrences, of genres encounters, and of cyclic exchanges with other artistic forms.

The couturier took advantage of the effervescence that marked Lebanon form 1995 to 2000: he returned to Lebanon for the first time in the framework of the Salon des Artistes et Décorateurs (SAD) that was being organized in France at the time and was taking place in Lebanon. Alongside 10 Lebanese and 10 French artists, he created a “fashion corner” in the exhibition.

The event is very successful and the country “tickles” him. Then follows a series of impromptu successes: two days before finishing his military service in Lebanon, a young woman orders a wedding dress. He simply puts together an atelier with two people and the dress is a success. When he returned to Paris, he met another young lady and drew for her what he considers being his first “true” dress: conceptual and finalized. He thus decides to return to Lebanon to try his luck. Working as a designer for “Femme Magazine”, he finds his career literally “propelled” after the dress he had created made the cover of the magazine. The entire Lebanese “hip” society succumbs and he redesigns several more in the same genre. The doors opened… without any career plan.

Gradually, as one encounter followed another, Rabih “weaves” a good reputation that is reinforced by its participation in various artistic experiments and by the unique position he occupies in his own Lebanese entourage.