“The collection was inspired by history—a personal history,” revealed the show notes. A welcome continuation from last season’s intimate story which referenced his mother and his homeland. Twenty-five years ago, Elie Saab and his wife, Claudine, were married. She walked down the aisle in a dress designed by her beloved, and it was crafted with embroidered gold. This royal and rich hue served as the primary color on which Saab built this collection in homage to his most intimate love story and the Maison’s original dresses, which set the foundation for the Elie Saab empire.
While the opening looks were embroidered golden gowns and the threads seemed to extend to the hair and weave around the models’ wrists and ears, other colors sparkled, too—peridot, opalescent pink, garnet red, rose gold, and deep emerald—and created something of a Byzantine jewel box effect.
The silhouettes, cut from crepe de chine, silk tulle, and chiffon, were elongated and featured delicate caplets and nipped or empire waists. If these silhouettes appeared light as air, the weighty embroidery—which at times came across as too laborious—brought the dresses back down to earth. A handful of skirts were splendidly embroidered with glistening thread that outlined petals, full flowers, and, in one case, what looked like the delicate outline of elongated butterfly wings. Notably, Saab also integrated fur in the collection: wide oval mink straps fell from shoulder to elbow. From afar, the silhouette created the illusion of a chic bolero jacket, but up close, these accouterments made for an unattractively shaped square torso and ultimately served to flatten the chest.
It’s something to be said that the delicate opening gowns left as much of an impression as the painstakingly colossal finale wedding dress. Saab should continue to explore creating with a lighter hand—he certainly hasn’t mastered it, and cannot seem to avoid adding when he should instead be eliminating.
