Elie Saab’s pearl paradise

Elie Saab’s stunning creations showcased at Paris Fashion Week – Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2014-2015 brought alive the romance of a fairy tale unfurling luxurious, elegant evening dresses, lavishly studded with pearls

The grandeur of a Parisian palace, the iridescent surface of pearls, and the exceptional craftsmanship only possible in haute couture; these three features fused and exploded in a magnificent pearl-parade in Elie Saab’s Fall Winter 2014-2015 Haute Couture collection.

Such is the power of his vision that simply gazing at the acclaimed Lebanese maestro’s fabulously feminine creations one can escape into a fairytale! A realm where queens and princesses twirled and swirled away their nights and days to sweet music (of course, once bored by the monotony they can always come back to earth).

But Elie Saab made it clear that his creations were designed for elite evenings (those ‘by invitation only’ occasions where the famous in society hob-nob shoulders) by lining the back of the runway with chandeliers, and illuminating them just moments before the first model made her dazzling entrance.  

However critics did crib (as they always do of course), that since Saab has a ready-to-wear collection for daywear, he had probably decided to focus his haute couture collection entirely on eveningwear. (Not a wrong deduction of course, since you couldn’t possibly wear them for day occasions as they were a tad too grand).

Interestingly, the colours refracted in those chandeliers provided the palette: first blue, then pink, next blush, followed by black, white and grey. Studded with pearls by the millions (more like zillions) the light from those magnificent chandeliers danced off the lustrous, iridescent surfaces of those tiny pearly orbs, to transform the show into something magical.  

So he selected Tahitian blue pearls for a navy chiffon goddess dress; white pearls on a long-sleeve princess gown and champagne-colored ones for a strapless cocktail number in a neutral shade of pink.

But there was one major drawback. The marine merchandise obviously made the dresses heavy and cumbersome, weighing the models down. And it was obvious for viewers to notice that the lissome, tall ladies were actually struggling to walk down the runway. Needless to say the bride appeared to suffer the most as she had acres and acres of embroidered train.

And speaking of brides, just when will women ever free themselves from such self-imposed suffering on the most important day of their lives? They forget that as it is, we have enough on our plates just trying to battle those last-minute nerves.  

White pearls on white gowns were of course the most classic-as-always combination among Elie Saab’s long line-up. But some designs were riveting, like for instance a strapless blue gown which was an elegant extension, (up to the floor) of a column dress transformed into a swirl of waves from the knee level onwards.

And adding just the right design element to it was the Elie Saab touch: he broke the monotony of length and vertical monotony, by selecting a fabric with horizontal stripes running all over.  

Critics (as well as the rest of us) admired dresses featuring a lavish rose print, advising the designer to experiment more with prints. As one thing for sure they are definitely a lot lighter than pearls by the dozen...