How Céline Semaan's Slow Factory is shaping a revolutionary future for fashion, activism, and sustainability

In 1986, Lebanese-born Céline Semaan was forced to seek asylum at four years old.

“I was just one of nearly a million Lebanese nationals who had to flee during the Civil War,” she recounts.

“My father was already in Canada, so we fled and joined him there. Of course, it is hard to leave. You always dream of returning.”

This experience, which formed some of her earliest memories, shaped the trajectory of Céline’s life and work.

“We eventually returned to Lebanon in 1995,” Céline tells The New Arab, explaining that displacement remained a recurring reality.

“We are not the only ones. The Arabic-speaking population is one of the largest diasporas in the world due to ongoing political violence and oppression.”

Now a designer, teacher, writer, and founder, Céline Semaan focuses on decolonising narratives and reclaiming the right to tell one’s own story.

“My work has always been centred around dignity, identity, and reclaiming our stories,” she says.

“It is about talking to people from the vantage point they are at rather than explaining ourselves through the dominant culture.”

It is out of this ethos that Céline’s organisation, Slow Factory, was born. Launched as an online project in 2012, Slow Factory is an award-winning knowledge lab and non-profit organisation that focuses on environmental and social justice.

Empowering the global majority for climate justice and social equity

Over the years, Slow Factory has worked to address the intersecting crisis of climate justice and social inequity through open education, narrative change, and regenerative designs.

One of their first projects to gain worldwide attention was their Gaza by Night scarves collection released in 2014.

“We printed photographs of Gaza taken by an astronaut orbiting the earth,” Céline recalls.

“All you could see were the explosions launched by the Israeli occupation. This was our first public moment advocating for our dignity — asking for the liberation of Palestine. The photo instantly went viral.”

Slow Factory continued to evolve, challenging new forms of oppression through fashion activism. During the Trump administration’s Muslim and refugee ban, a line of bomber jackets printed with the First Amendment was created. 

“The Amendment was printed in Arabic on the outside and English on the inside,” Céline shares.

“Arabic words often inspire fear in America — but these were the words of the right to freedom of speech and press.”

The poignant pieces, designed to inspire systemic change, were sold to the public and later acquired by San Francisco’s de Young Museum.

Alongside their fashion activism, Slow Factory operates as a knowledge lab.

Their programmes include Open Edu, a member-supported series that teaches on human rights, climate justice, and collective liberation while centring the voices of the global majority. Their work also includes innovative approaches to waste education.

"We have taken people from Nike, Macy’s, and Calvin Klein on landfill tours so they can see their products there and the effects they have,” Céline says.

The organisation has explored a whole host of material innovations, too. The team have grown leather alternatives from tea and coffee waste, while their Garment to Garment pilot funds designers of the global majority whose work revolves around up-cycling.

In 2020, Slow Factory even opened its first physical site, Slow Forest. The space serves as a sanctuary and artist-run residency, with programmes centred on rewilding, environmental education, and nature-based solutions.

Reclaiming narratives

Céline Semaan’s most recent project is the publication of her memoir, A Woman is a School.

“The book follows the oral storytelling tradition of the Levant — hakawati,” she shares.

“I wanted to document what I have witnessed throughout my life and the lives of my family members. A Woman is a School was a way to share our cultures of resistance and resilience.”

These stories, centred around the teachings of women, vary greatly. Céline recalls losing her stuffed toys at the airport while fleeing Lebanon at the age of four.

The book also charts the experience of dancing baladi at school, while in Canada, only to be humiliated by fellow students.

Other accounts come from family members; Céline recounts the trauma her great-grandmother endured as a child bride who later left her family for a younger man. Elsewhere, we see intimate hand-drawn caricatures of her grandparents.

Alongside personal stories, the book provides an insightful political critique of what Céline describes as the “political ravages of colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy.”

The memoir recounts the violent segregation of Arab communities by the Global South, the French mandate in Lebanon, the 1948 Nakba and the subsequent displacement of millions of Palestinians from their native land.

The path to releasing the book was riddled with challenges, however.

“After October 2023, the publisher I was working with decided to shelve the book indefinitely,” Céline recalls.

“They put me at a crossroads; wait until 2027 for the book to be potentially reconsidered for publishing or figure out how to release it myself.”

This was not a singular experience. “In the wake of October 7, other partners also did not want to be associated with an Arab organisation,” Céline says.

"There was and still is a growing prejudice against Arabs. It might slow us down, but it will not stop us.”

To release her book, Céline decided to create her own publishing house, Slow Factory Press.

Through Slow Factory Press, she also initiated Everything Is Political — a platform amplifying independent cultural, research, and ideas through its online subscription and print magazine.

“The name was important; we wanted to show that being apolitical sides with the oppressor,” Céline says.

“It benefits them. To ensure the platform was not reliant on Silicon Valley platforms, we coded everything independently and have technological sovereignty over our publishing operations,” she further explains.

“We wanted to protect our freedom of speech completely.”

Designed as a tangible counterpoint to mainstream narratives, the publication has featured a wide range of contributors from the global majority, including Mia Khalifa, Lina Soualem, and Palestinian artist Malak Mattar.

The Slow Factory Press also plans to publish other literary works in the future.

“I am not the only one experiencing this level of racism and prejudice,” Céline tells The New Arab, explaining that she plans to support other writers from the global majority in publishing their work.

“We have had to go through so much to do what we are doing,” Céline says solemnly.

“There is so much prejudice and weight to carry. We must hold our dignity as a sacred thing — it is all we have.”

[Cover photo: Photography by Shana Jade] 

Amelia Dhuga studied history at the University of Cambridge before relocating to Beirut, Lebanon. She now covers a range of topics from Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco. Over the years, she has written for a variety of leading newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Al Jazeera, New Lines and The New Arab

Follow her on Instagram: @ameliadhuga