born as a personal treaty between farah malik, a pakistani muslim, and dana arbib, a libyan jew, a peace treaty creates employment for skilled artisans working in places of socio-political strife, effectively supporting their craft while elevating their products to the level of high design for and exclusive, international audience.
inspired by the hand-crafting cultures of the middle east, asia, europe and africa, a peace treaty was first conceived when arbib and malik met while living in rome. the two discovered that they shared both a love of high fashion and a desire to increase awareness of ancient, disappearing crafting traditions. intermingling arbib’s strong back ground in graphic, textile and product design with malik’s history of developing multimedia marketing campaigns for social justice and human rights, they set about connecting discerning fashion connoisseurs with cache, boutique-level artifacts from places typically seen only negatively through the media lens. in addition to supporting the craftspeople in these selected locations, a peace treaty also donates to “counterpart international”, helping bring medical supplies to darfur.
each collection, focused on both a particular region and accessory, is comprised of a small selection of limited edition pieces in specifically style-unique colorways. “a peace treaty’s” 2008 collection focus on uplifting traditional, finely woven/handloomed scarves, stoles and handkerchief pocket squares from the punjab province of southern asia.
