Elie Saab Mixes 19th-Century Romance with Red carpet Precision in Fall Couture
Lebanese couturier Elie Saab's gowns look as if they've floated in from a parallel universe, one where splendor reigns, opulence is a given, and women are ethereal goddesses draped in celestial couture.
The designer's clients are women who flourish in the glow of life's grandest occasions: weddings, state banquets, black-tie galas, red-carpet premieres. It's a rarefied reality but a reality nonetheless—one that Elie Saab has been dressing in fabulosity ever since he opened his atelier in Beirut in the early 1980s.
It's a formula that keeps Hollywood coming back. Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Charlize Theron, Emmanuelle Béart, Sophie Marceau, Beyoncé, Maggie Cheung, and Diane Kruger have all stepped onto the world's biggest stages in Saab's gowns — a testament to a house where fantasy and glamour are always in season.
He christened this season La Nouvelle Cour ('The New Court'), and from the first look, you feel the upward pull of a Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ceiling: pastel clouds, gilded scrollwork, and a sense that the floor might drop away at any moment.
In Paris, fashion insiders gathered among marble columns as models descended a gilded stone staircase to the strains of harpsichord music, setting the tone for a collection steeped in historical romance.
Phones rose as every guest strained to capture the sweep of a procession that sped from the Hall of Mirrors to a Belle-Époque ballroom and, finally, a 1950s Hollywood red-carpet dream.
A sovereign colour story anchors the fantasy. Blush biscuit and icy blue—boudoir hues lifted from a Fragonard fête galante—spar with imperial black and antique bullion gold, echoing the gilded stuccos of 19-century state rooms.
Fabrics are as opulent as the settings they conjure: moiré silk ripples like watered marble, brocade lamé gleams like salon upholstery, velvet pile drinks in light, and lurexed lace glitters under a net of beads and three-dimensional Sèvres-porcelain florals.
Where cloth isn't already radiant, Saab overwrites it with paillettes or pearl-stitched vines, turning every surface into a moving fresco.
Chokers, ribbon ties, and teardrop 'courtesan' pearls punctuate décolletés; wrist corsages and pocket blossoms nod to the nosegays ladies-in-waiting once carried at court.
Saab leaned into his signature codes: sumptuous velvets, gowns gathered at the back, and pearl and jewel-adorned chokers. Floral appliqués — another hallmark — blossomed, anchoring the collection in the femininity that has defined the house for decades.
Fifty-plus looks swept by with ballroom haste: screens aloft, necks craned, the hush punctured only by the click-click of eager cameras.
Saab promised 'a sumptuous playground for the modern queen — one who plays by her own rules,' and delivered via ebony-velvet corsets that cinched before releasing brocade waterfalls, bead-built leopard spots prowling over blush tulle, and a mint-moire sheath sliced to reveal a decisive flash of thigh.
Macaron hues — nude, rose pink, water blue, and mint — punctuated by imperial black and gold, set off bold blooms across brocade and print, infusing the collection with romantic vibrancy.
Among the standout pieces were gowns with cascading trains and bejeweled details, encasing the body in a kind of luxurious cage. Among the standout pieces were gowns with cascading trains and bejeweled details, encasing the body in a kind of luxurious cage.
Still, one extra heartbeat between looks might have let us savour pearl-latticed bows and cape linings quilted like sucre à la crème. Kinetic shimmer is Saab's secret sauce; letting it linger could have transformed admiration into awe.
Saab closed with a bride in moonlit florals and a pearl-toned overskirt—a soft bow to history, a confident nod to the future, and a reminder that when narrative and handwork lock this tightly, couture's new court will always have subjects willing to kneel.
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