Unexpected, with neo-Futurism flavor and Art Deco touches, the new haute couture fall-winter 2014-2015 collection of Zuhair Murad pushes the boundaries of the “comfort zone” of the Lebanese designer – the familiar outline of perfect cocktail and evening dresses, competing with each other in brightness of colors, density of embroidery sequins and consumed meters of luxurious fabrics.
This time Murad drew his inspiration to works of Zaha Hadid – famous for her “alien” designs English architect of Iraqi origin. The designer tried to transfer on dresses curved shapes of elongated structures designed by Hadid, with “multiple perspective” and “fragmented geometry”. The result was above all praise.
The collection can be clearly divided into three parts: the first, architectural, performed in a black-and-white dualism and the strongest in my opinion – is an experimental field of the designer.
The central one, more “traditional”, in which flaming red gives way to royal blue and rich turquoise, is implemented in the spirit of the fashion house – indeed bold couture experiments are not always to the taste of the faithful clientele, sitting in the front row.
And finally the third, closing the show and returning us to architectural forms, is executed in silver – the color of stars. Inlays on dresses in a form of a grid – a favorite element of modern architects, and signature linear bends of Zaha Hadid the designer repeatedly reuses in different elements: be it a bodice of a bustier, or an asymmetrical mini with a mesh rhinestones thrown over, or a hem of a silver gown with a grid of cells widening towards the bottom or a caftan, preceding the final exit of the bride, in which geometry of lines, accented with embroidery, is perfectly symmetrical.
Clients of Zuhair Murad, by his own admission, are getting younger, and not only in age but also in spirit. And therefore the designer should not be afraid of stylistic experiments, as far as imaginative haute couture line is far more admissive to them than a commercial prêt-à-porter.
Photo credits: Zuhair Murad / Yannis Vlamos