“For Spring 2019, the Georges Hobeika woman becomes the royal renegade empowered to seek her destiny, freely and beautifully,” noted the designer to Vogue.me ahead of his eponymous womenwear label’s Spring 2019 Haute Couture show, which unfolded on Monday at Paris’s National Theater of Chaillot. 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.
In a pink, corset-style top, flared sequined trousers, and embellished fingerless gloves, the 21st century answer to France’s last queen prior to the Revolution made her ghastly return, drifting down the dimly-lit runway to open the show. The opening look was followed by opulent gowns, sequined jumpsuits, and slinky evening-wear boasting embroidered botanical patterns, regal silhouettes, and plenty of intricate jewel-like and feather detailing. The couturier embellished rich fabrics like silk, duchesse satin, and chiffon in a harmonious palette of pink, mint, tangerine, champagne, and black, with mostly tonal arabesques or floral embroideries. Even the bride was a queen, resplendent in a crystal-laden wedding gown accentuated with a dazzling, floor-trailing veil that floated ethereally down the runway.
Indeed, if anyone knows anything about royalty it’s Hobeika. The Lebanese designer’s worldwide recognition first came in 2012 when Miss USA Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe wearing a red, velvet Georges Hobeika gown. Today, a vast majority of his clientele is made up of Arab sheikhas and princesses that commission the designer for show-stopping gowns to costume them for weddings and extravagant soirées.
Click through the gallery below for an exclusive look backstage at Georges Hobeika Spring 2019 Couture.
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