Elie Saab dubbed his collection Heiress, but this aristo has a job...
No lolling about in raw-edged silk pajama pants and fur-lined shower shoes for her. Saab emphasized daywear here, shirts that buttoned all the way up to the collar worn with flap-pocket trousers or pencil skirts, and for dresses, a fitted sheath or a V-neck with a pleated A-line skirt. The models wore cross-body bags or carried big totes—Saab meant business. He worked with strong, monochrome colors: royal blue, turquoise, raspberry pink. Most of them appeared in a bold abstract print used for a passage of floaty chiffon dresses. The dresses were a change of pace for Saab and not a bad one, even though most of Paris has moved on from the digital print craze.
For evening, Saab's big idea was to sculpt dresses at the waist with grosgrain. The look was graphic on an ivory column embroidered with dark brown ribbons. He re-created the effect on sequined cocktail numbers and gowns with geometric inserts of lace tracing the natural curves of the body. That experiment produced the collection's best piece, a three-quarter-sleeve raspberry pink dress on Magdalena Frackowiak that sizzled as she came down the runway.
S.I.
