Zuhair Murad sought to offer an outlet for his heroine’s inner torment this season, translating emotion like a burst of anger in his glittering silhouettes. Jagged shard-like adornments were scattered across his designs like a cry for help, while embroideries burst forth like explosions, their chaos delivering drama to the silhouette.
“This silhouette is really not the princess dress at all, she’s more structured, more strong, edgier, sexier,” Murad said backstage before the show in between putting finishing touches to his designs. “We have a huge history from thousands of couturiers, they gave us an encyclopedia of techniques. What we are doing now is to develop this in a modern way to meet with our world.”
Jagged shards evoking a mirror broken in anger were embroidered across a minidress and a tailored leather jacket dress, while diagonal draping and knotting of jersey or embroidered slash motifs were like the scars of psychological wounds put on display, self-assured, for all to see. Constellations of embroidery were explosions across his gowns this season. A pearl-bedecked bodysuit evoked the bubbles of a glass of Champagne, and tears — after all, the two are not mutually exclusive.
On one satin number, a hole in the torso surrounded by black embroideries suggested where a bullet had entered the body. “She had no weapons,” read the show notes. But somebody evidently did, metaphorically or otherwise.
Murad’s silhouettes hugged the figure. High and halter necklines and square shoulders elongated the body — this is a woman who holds her head high no matter the circumstances — as did velvet or chiffon stoles that trailed behind the models on the runway.
There was nary a princess dress in sight, but plenty to satisfy the inner drama queen.