Elie Saab Fall 2016 PFW

Elie Saab does what the others only think they do!  Hedi, you listening? You wanna do a motorcycle jacket? Okay, then encrust it in beads! You wanna do a zip front hoodie? Then bead it! You wanna do a   Levi jacket? Then bead it! How about a “smoking?”  Turn it into a cape! Items such as these have become almost the vernacular of the fashion vocabulary but yet most designers, yeah you Hedi!!! Add some fringe, leopard or studs and think you reinvented the wheel; Saab, in fact, brings his take on these styles and casts them as his own with his very own unique design prowess.

 

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Saab has been long admired by me as one of those designers who has mastered both day and evening clothes but has segregated them when it comes to collections, day and evening in ready to wear and evening only in haute couture. Wise idea is my take! So in this collection he solidifies his vision by offering his own version of a “youth quake” for fall 2016. You might be reminded of Veruschka, some hippie, some boho, some rocker, some Hedi, some Dundas, some YSL and I’m sure much more if you choose to dissect it but the point is that this is all 100% Saab; the aforementioned are what they are … referenced points not knock offs!

 

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So if we operate from the standpoint of “sex sells”… thank you Mary R…Elie Saab has got that covered from an apparently simple long sleeved high necked beaded encrusted dress to a pull all the stops pulled out floor length, beaded, lashed and transparent gown. When a designer gives a collection his imprimatur, the viewer will either look very closely or figure it out or the viewer will just dismiss the collection as yeah ok if you say so. Case in point is a group of pieces which look as if they are embellished with multi colored polka dots which they are except the dots are multi colored “pearls” which have been painstakingly applied one at time ... marinate on that! He offers up those cigarette pants except they are beaded as if they were a black tie gown. The hippie looks with long flowing vests and pants tucked into boots are the height of “what are you looking at  ... This is hot!” in essence, Saab makes it all his own, with his idea of how to interpret these ideas and concepts... No blah blah blah necessary. It would behoove the fawning press to throw some rose petals in his path as it is he who gets it and it is he who perpetuates and defines the true meaning of designer… sans press release.

 

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If you choose to dismiss the collection as who cares... I say to you that it’s your loss... I will leave it at that!