Cynthia Merhej, the Palestinian-Lebanese designer behind Paris-Beirut label Renaissance Renaissance, is celebrating 10 years as a house. And while Merhej reflects on a landmark decade, her story is inter-generational, and actually begins in the 1930s.

Her great-grandmother Laurice Srouji was a renowned couturier in Jaffa, Palestine. She pushed against the current—Laurice bore five children, endured the 1948 Nakba, and continued designing sleek clothing for Lebanon’s most chic women until her passing. The designer’s mother Laura launched her own label in 1984 during the Lebanon War; it was an opulent resistance to conflict, all shoulder-pads and jewel tones. The political tumult of Lebanon and the cultural architecture of Beirut—Renaissance Renaissance’s first atelier home—are never far from Cynthia Merhej’s mind, and have contoured both the themes of her own collections and its physical output.

In 2021, Merhej was selected as an LVMH Prize semi-finalist—the first Arab woman ever—and then again in 2025. Her designs—known for exquisitely tailored, feminine silhouettes that transform materials from sequins to army gear—have appeared on everyone from New York’s first lady Rama Duwaji for her husband’s historic swearing-in ceremony, to Dua Lipa and Chloë Sevigny, designing costumes for the latter’s character in Durga Chew-Bose’s debut film, Bonjour Tristesse. Still, she is quick to praise her family, friends, and collaborators that bolster the Renaissance Renaissance’s continued successes, including her own mother Laura who works closely with her.

Today, Merhej releases DECADE, a limited edition fan-zine. “Physical media is really important to me,” she tells Vogue from Paris. “I wanted to make something lasting. I’ve never done a show—maybe one day soon, I hope. For me, it’s never about doing something just because it’s cool or because everyone else is doing it.”

The project started with stylist and close collaborator Claudia Sinclair, who wanted to shoot with Merhej’s archive. Realizing the brand’s anniversary was approaching, they considered something larger: a zine and collectible felt like a good marker for the moment. The zine calls upon three photographers—George Eyres, Alessandro Raimondo, and Alice Mann—for three shoots. Eyres’s is the most “fashion,” shot black-and-white. “It felt radically different from anything I’ve done before,” says Merhej, while she describes Raimondo’s work as “bringing incredible sensitivity through close-ups that show texture and detail.” Mann shot a documentary-style story of young women in their grandmothers’s homes. “Mixed together, we wanted it to feel alive, dynamic, and constantly moving,” she says.

A tangible object also felt important against the backdrop of her heritage. “I think my obsession with images and physicality comes from growing up in places where everything can feel temporary,” she explains. Across Palestine and Beirut, maniacal bomb campaigns have decimated cultural institutions and history. Merhej interned at the Arab Image Foundation, which gathers and preserves photos from Lebanon and the Middle East to keep a record of cultural and social history. “The idea of reaching 10 years is honestly insane to me; pausing and commemorating something feels very unnatural as a Lebanese person. We’ve lived through so many events and tragedies, and often nothing is preserved. This project forced me to pause and acknowledge.” She continues to be inspired by the works of artists like Akram Zaatari, Walid Raad, and Lamia Joreige, whose practice explores archives, history, and memory.

“I don’t think I’m saving the world by making a zine, but it’s important to be able to say that, at a certain moment, there was a Lebanese designer doing something, and there were creative people making meaningful work despite everything happening around them,” Merhej adds. “If that inspires someone in the future, that’s the best outcome I could hope for.”

Merhej remains a keen student of fashion research. “Maybe someone will discover DECADE in a library some day and reference it,” she says. “I’m very drawn to the slower, more complete experience of engaging with physical material. To me, that’s a much more interesting way to explore culture than the endless scroll of imagery we consume every day. Context and curation matter, but I’d also be excited for someone to pull an image and find their own meanings.” And while there are ardent themes—intergenerational legacy, female autonomy, femininity, freedom—Merhej and Sinclair curated the zine boundlessly, styling pieces from across Renaissance Renaissance seasons and mixing the shoots to create new stories.

The designer is also working toward her next collection—as always, beginning with personal emotions and building a story around them, before letting her research guide her toward other artists and imagery that might inspire. Right now, she’s interested in feathers and birds, finding new nature photographers and queer artists.

Those long family legacies remain at the core of Renaissance Renaissance, too. “I learned so much from watching how my mom worked and how she built things in her own way. I think there is something very powerful about women-run businesses,” she reflects. “And at the same time, I've built my own practice differently. 10 years feels significant because I think it takes about that long for an artistic practice to mature.” Starting the brand at 26, she didn’t know how to make a pattern: “Even coming from a fashion background, it took years not only to learn design, but also to understand my eye, my vision, and what I wanted to say.”

“Despite all the challenges—political, personal, everything that has happened over the last decade—I’m grateful for the time I had to grow into that. I’m grateful for my mother, for the people who believed in me, for factories, photographers, stylists, PR teams, everyone. What’s exciting is that I finally feel like I’m stepping into it. I don’t look back and feel exhausted. I look back and think: I’ve only just started.”

As well as an archive and anniversary, DECADE also marks a transition into a new chapter for the designer” “Each of my collections has seen me revisiting and reworking my own ideas, pushing them further. It feels satisfying, now, to say I’ve explored longheld ideas as far as I could.” For what comes next: pursuing more work in film, for one. “I think I think like a director,” she shares. “I loved working on Bonjour Tristesse, understanding a character and what they wear, rather than a collection. In fashion, you’re creating an entire world. In film, you’re often focused on a specific person and their role within a larger story. That can actually feel liberating, focused.” Now, she’s working on an even bigger independent film project with a friend. “I’m thinking about individual characters, cultural history, and a broader narrative all at once. I find that incredibly exciting.”

Ultimately, Merhej feels like she’s finally come into her own over the last 10 years. What stimulates her now is creative direction more broadly—whether that’s film, publications, working with artists, actors, or musicians. She is restructuring the brand to give herself that freedom, and hopes to continue working outside of what can feel like restrictive, rhythmic fashion weeks and seasons: “I want to create a structure that allows me to explore different opportunities while keeping the brand as my personal creative outlet.”

“I love world-building,” Merhej says astutely. “That’s probably the simplest way to describe it. I want to keep building worlds, whether through fashion or other mediums. My dream for the next 10 years is to stay free. To move between fashion, film, music, publishing, and whatever other creative forms become interesting.”

DECADE: a collectible zine celebrating 10 years of Renaissance Renaissance launches June 23 at Cahier Centrale, 26 Rue du Château d’Eau, 75010 Paris