SELL IT LIKE IT IS. “When I started back in 2002, my aim was to get away from traditional national symbols, such as the cedars or Baalbeck,” he says, explaining that he first tried producing his wares in conjunction with the traditionalist (and impoverished) Ministry of Tourism, but the venture was short-lived. “I was also fed up with seeing people wearing cheap, bad-quality t-shirts advertising Paris, New York or whatever. So I decided to come up with a high-quality, well-designed concept that would really reflect the Lebanese youth.

“Our motto is to sell good, original made-in-Lebanon products showing that ours is a country that has a lot to say.”

Not that everybody in Lebanon would agree with Habib’s depiction of Lebanese youth, but his slogans have found a market among students, 30-something locals and - particularly - the expatriate Lebanese community.

“When we started, I used to come up with more sophisticated messages, such as ‘Lebanese Tabouleh,’ with all 17 different confessions present in Lebanon, or the ‘Shebaa Farms disconnected’ tagline,” he explains. “But the most popular ones are the simplest, like ‘Hi! Kifak! Ça va?’ or ‘VILP - very important Lebanese person.’”

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