A Mediterranean summer seems like a faraway notion when it’s three degrees and the depressing kind of cloudy in Paris, the pandemic adding an extra dimension of souffrance to the current couture proceedings. But Elie Saab, the pioneering Lebanese couturier, is nothing if not forward-looking. He was determined to sprinkle his spring couture collection with organza bougainvillea, the ultimate signifier of summer sunshine at his first physical show in two years. A hearty 55 looks in a lush spectrum of full-skirted silhouettes and bedecked with frivolous feathers, rhinestones, beads, and sequins to a soundtrack of cicadas—the collection is a bid to give his customers what he insists they both want and need more than ever: joy.
For spring he’s preoccupied with color in deep bursts rather than the more faded tone-on-tone combinations he has been known to favor. “Clients like color—they like to enjoy life again after hard times,” he said, simply, speaking backstage. So too satin, which he said was a first, and taffeta, which he pumped up with tulle. He also experimented with mini lengths among the mushrooming skirts. One of the best looks was a fringed raspberry and silver minidress, sporting a giant floral corsage on one shoulder Carrie Bradshaw-style; you could see a Hollywood starlet snapping it up for awards season.
There was a backdrop of grief behind all the glitz. Thirty-two years after the Civil War ended in Lebanon, the country is battling its worst economic crisis in decades. Saab looked wistful when asked how it felt to represent his country in the highest echelons of fashion. “Optimistic? I tell you honestly, I don’t know. Because the situation is too big,” he said. Nevertheless, he insisted it felt good to be back in Paris. “I feel like Paris is my second home. I feel a big responsibility, [holding a show again] feels like the first time. After two years, a lot of people change their minds about what is precious. I believe this difficult period has let everybody come up with a new plan for their life.”
That said, Saab clients all over the world still come to him for dresses that, to borrow from British slang, engineer a “shut the front door” reaction (read: surprise!). In Lebanon, where bridal still remains one of Saab’s biggest categories, newly betrothed women are still clamoring for a jaw-dropping dress, the likes of which closed the show. A wedding might be 100 people rather than 1,000 people but the sense of ceremony remains. Saab shrugged. “We have hope, everything comes back to hope.”
