We all saw the explosions and damage that ravaged the Lebanon capital last week, with thousands affected. The hunt for family and friends began, with the Lebanese government set to resign following the blast. The explosion was caused by 2, 750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate for six years without any precautions at Beirut’s port; a negligent disaster bubbling away, causing over 200 deaths.

So, how has the city sought to bounce back since? Residents need shelter, food and basic needs, all during a pandemic. Prior to the explosion and due to the pandemic, an estimated one in three Lebanese people had lost their jobs and around 22% now live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Locals also do not have access to their bank accounts due to the collapse of Lebanon’s banking system earlier in the year.

The fashion industry in particular has already felt the ripple effect of COVID-19, and has been restructuring throughout, altering its business models. Given its long colonial relationship with Paris, Beirut has unusually been a style epicentre, with local designers using creative avant-garde pieces as a mode of social activism. It has provided an escape for younger generations to express themselves.

One of its most famed jewelry designers, Hala Taya, perished in the blast, along with other famed house Maison Rabih Kayrouz, which often showcases its couture designs in Paris. Accounts are flooded with DM’s in search of life amongst the business owners of Beirut including Tania Fares, who explained “there are so many dead here”. Fares set up the Fashion Trust Arabia (FTA), a non-profit organisation that provides support to o support to MENA (Middle East and North Africa) designers and was in the office at the time of the blast.

Thankfully due to electricity restrictions, designer Sandra Mansour’s team had gone home at 3pm before the blast at 6.07pm, whilst she worked in Geneva. The atelier and showroom was completely destroyed, with the added panic whilst on the phone to her mother at the time “the line cut out, and I went crazy”. Although many have lost their stores and homes, Elie Saab Jr (CEO of his father’s fashion house) acknowledged that this is “immaterial compared to the damage the country is currently facing”.

For Beirut designer Nicolas Jeban, his couture designs were featured in Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s new music video for WAP (which I am currently obsessing over). He explained, “among the wreckage, the broken glass and shattered offices lie the glowing colours of hope. For better tomorrow’s, we hope, we pray, we aspire”.

The explosion at the port will have huge impacts on Beirut, given that 80% of the country’s annual imports are food and other items, with the port responsible for 60% of this. Since its civil war in 1990, Lebanon has been unable to produce enough of these materials on its own. This also includes a cut to medical supplies.

Further to this, Lebanon has the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide (mainly from neighbouring African nations), and are now trapped under Lebanon’s kafla system which requires unskilled labourers to have an in-country sponsor, with many stripped of their passports, leaving them vulnerable to abuse.

Lastly, three hospitals have been destroyed and two severely damaged according to Al Jazeera. Given the overwhelming effects of COVID-19 and more than 5, 000 people have been injured, Beirut faces a long journey to recover medically, and overall as one of the largest cities in the Middle East.

To help, the people of Lebanon have pleaded not to donate to the government, due to its large mismanagement of debt and the closure of banks, preventing locals from withdrawing money.