Lara Scandar wearing Zuhair Murad on her wedding day. Photograph by ParAzar Productions. Courtesy of Lara Scandar
At the weekend, Egyptian star Lara Scandar wed Philippe Katchouni in a fairytale ceremony in Lebanon. The artist knew exactly which leading designer she could rely upon for her big-day dress. Scandar shares with Vogue.me her journey from bride-to-be dreaming of her ideal gown, to making changes to her Murad wedding look 48 hours before heading down the aisle.
On Choosing Murad
“The advice people gave me before getting married was that I had to go to 100 different designers and get 100 different options, and I did exactly the opposite of that. I knew what I wanted, I had worked with [Zuhair Murad] before. He knows me, he knows my taste, he knows my style, and he knows what suits me best. So, I didn’t go to anyone else.”
On Visiting Zuhair Murad’s HQ
“I went to them [in Murad’s atelier] in January to start making the dress. In terms of fabric, it was mainly lace beaded over with pearls and small beads. I didn’t want any specific element or object to show, so I didn’t want the lace to be like a floral design and I didn’t want to look at the dress and say, “Oh, that dress had flowers, or that dress had a firework.” I wanted it to be sort of abstract, so he added just a couple of white flowers over the skin part so when you look at it closely, there are flowers, but if you look at it from afar, it has brightness. The print of the lace that we chose was also abstract, not too floral, so you couldn’t really tell what it was.”
Lara Scandar wearing Zuhair Murad on her wedding day. Photograph by ParAzar Productions. Courtesy of Lara Scandar
On Her First Appointment With Murad
“What was so beautiful about working with Zuhair, especially the first meeting, is that when I started explaining to him what I want – like the high-neck and the long sleeve – he literally finished off my sentences. This sounds really weird but it’s true, he finished my sentences and then right in front of me, about 10 minutes later, after we had just gone through all the details, he sketched my dream dress and he showed it to me and was like, “Is this what you’re talking about?” I was just in shock.”
“This is my dream dress.”
“Obviously, he added so much more to it. He added the train, I hadn’t even thought of a train. He designed the veil and the head piece and it was just so nice because I loved having someone who didn’t have an ego; he listened to me and heard my every opinion.”
Lara Scandar wearing Zuhair Murad on her wedding day. Photograph by ParAzar Productions. Courtesy of Lara Scandar
Two Days Before the Wedding
“I remember after our first meeting he told me, “Listen, brides tend to change their minds and that’s totally fine. If anything annoys you, even if it’s two days before the wedding, that’s fine.” And actually that happened. We had designed a beautiful head piece and just two days before the wedding, I looked at it and thought, “you know what, this is not what I want.” I got so embarrassed. I had to call them up and tell them that I wanted something completely different, but I mustered up the courage to do that. I went to his team and they were totally understanding of the fact that I couldn’t be there the day of my wedding and wear something that I was not 100% OK with. They designed a completely new headpiece and that’s the one that everyone saw.”
On The Final Design
“This is exactly what I always knew I wanted, probably since I was 16. I always knew I wanted the long sleeves and the high neck, a bit see-through so it’s covered up but still has that sexiness to it. A bit of inspiration came from Grace Kelly, but sort of like a modern take on it.”
