Elie Saab Fall 2023 Couture Collection

Couture will always be a way of transporting women’s imagination into a realm of fantasy, Elie Saab said backstage before today’s show. He hasn’t wavered from his beliefs since the inception of his Beirut-based couture house in the ’80s.

Saab is known for the lavishness of his embroideries; intricacy of decoration is almost a built-in quality of his designs, somehow ruling over his clothes’ shapes and silhouettes, which are kept fairly simple and flattering. No plays of cutting-edge volumes or boundary-pushing constructions chez Saab, rather an abiding loyalty to the classic canons of appealing beauty that his clients continue to appreciate.

The collection’s inspiration was drawn from period movies set in the Middle Ages, a moment in time when glamour wasn’t at its apogee, really. Yet Saab transformed the monastic medieval lines of capes, trailing trains, and décolletages into a lavish, dramatic celebration of opulence. Sequined embroideries grimped over the surface of flimsy chiffon gowns with small fitted bodices, often worn with matching capes or veils covering the head. In Saab’s hands, the Middle Ages burst with a luminosity they surely never had.

Interspersed with soft-pink chiffon numbers heavily embroidered in silver and cape dresses in dramatic black velvet studded with more pearls the Black Sea could provide, a flow of plain-colored gowns in emerald green velvet, or in amethyst silk duchesse looked luscious. Refreshingly devoid of ornaments, they underlined Saab’s ability to play with silhouette-flattering, soft-draped shapes, without necessarily indulging in his signature decorative flair.