Arab Designers take Center Stage at Paris Couture Fashion Week

Arab designers are notoriously well-versed in world of high fashion and at this year’s Paris Couture Week (PCW), they represented the region in droves. Georges Hobeika, Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, Maison Rabih Kayrouz (the newly-minted couturier to be recognised by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture) and many other designers have been the ones to watch when PCW took over the city of lights January 21 -24.

Last year Georges Hobeika really owned the exuberance-over-everything trend, going heavy on the feathers and crystals. This year, models, including house muses Cindy Bruna and Maria Borges, marched down the runway wearing exquisite couture creations fit for a queen, quite literally. 18th Century French culture, and the style of that time, mainly Marie Antoinette, as well as the Palace of Versailles that she once inhabited served as the starting point for the Lebanese designer’s newest offering.

Couture runs in the family for designer Tony Ward, being the son of a well-known Beirut couturier. After working at Lanvin, Christian Dior and Chloe with some of the industries greatest talents, he went on to launch his own label. His creations are already a major highlight at PCW, the entire collection giving dark fairytale vibes.

Maison Rabih Kayrouz ditches the intricate embroidery and instead opts for a contemporary interpretation. For his first show since officially joining the French Couture Federation, the designer toggled between ready-to-wear and haute couture, including some easy silhouettes for men. It was a masterful display of the designer’s clean but poetic Middle East-meets-West aesthetic, the potentially tricky segues managed with precision and used to hold the audience’s attention.

Despite being a celeb magnet – counting Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Sonam Kapoor as some of their many famous fans – this was Rami Kadi’s first time showing in Paris Couture Week, and he didn’t disappoint. The Lebanese-American designer offered up a firework display that was an explosion of color and glitter for his first runway presentation. Inspired by the Burning Man festival, his heavily embellished designs registered as something of an acid-induced hallucination of iridescent sequin strands, mirrored Plexiglas forms and neon and crystal beading.

Another favorite of Queen B, Lebanese couturier duo Azzi & Osta showcased this year at PCW, presenting their Spring 2019 Couture collection, “Memoirs from the Silk Road,” to oohs and ahs from the audience. Like the name suggests, the offering was inspired by the ancient trade network that connected East Asia and Southeast Asia with East Africa, West Asia and Southern Europe and where silk, goods and cultures were exchanged. Each gown that punctuated the collection was a tribute to a city, monument, or landmark that was central to the Silk Road. This was translated through the different pleating, fabrics, and embroideries on the pieces. “It was always very fascinating to us, how silk as a luxury had to travel from one side of the earth to another to get to the royal courts of Europe,” explained the designers. “The idea of how secretive and protected was the provenance and art of silk making, is very similar to couture, the savoir-faire, the well-kept secret of the couture house, and the journey that undertake every piece,” they stated.

Last season Elie Saab really leaned into their strong suit: romantic silhouettes, flowy fabrics and hyper-femme details. This year, the designer unleashed a fresh batch of Oscar red-carpet contenders themed around an underwater sea goddess emerging from the water onto land. The off-the-shoulder organza gowns in aqua and coral had a classic Old Hollywood vibe, and an underwater flow and flair, with embellished sprigs forming sprays at the waist.

Zuhair Murad’s shows are always hard to beat. This year, the designer showed a more assertive side as he navigated between a sexy, rock attitude and softer romance. “The inspiration was all about the sea, the world of the deep sea, the sea from the beaches, from inside and outside,” he explained backstage. Also citing Cher, Jerry Hall and Bianca Jagger, power women of the Seventies and early Eighties, the designer navigated between a sexier, rock attitude — projected with sharper shoulders — and a softer, romantic side.

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