Elie Saab Captivates Paris Couture with a Fusion of Past and Present

A model presents a creation by Elie Saab during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Fashion Week in Paris on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A model presents a creation by Elie Saab during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Fashion Week in Paris on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
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Elie Saab Captivates Paris Couture with a Fusion of Past and Present

A model presents a creation by Elie Saab during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Fashion Week in Paris on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A model presents a creation by Elie Saab during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Fashion Week in Paris on July 5, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)

In the stone cloisters of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs adjoining the palatial Louvre, Elie Saab unveiled his latest collection to a rapt audience of VIPs, including Alicia Silverstone, on Wednesday.

Amid the historic venue, Saab presented a couture show that astounded attendees with its intricate detailing and magnificent silhouettes — and lived up to the venue’s grandeur, The Associated Press reported.

SAAB’S CINEMATIC SIRENS STRUT IN SILK Saab once again affirmed his philosophy: “The code of my collections will always remain the same." Staying true to his glamour-focused ethos, the fall collection saw Saab recraft history’s contours through a modern lens. Drawing inspiration from heroines of period pieces — Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth,” Charlize Theron in “Snow White and the Huntsman,” and more — Saab reinterpreted these timeless figures.

Complex embellishments, intricate textures, and sparkling jewel tones of ruby, amethyst and emerald danced across gowns, paying homage to the regal, cinematic muses. Medieval symbolism came to life through sequined Tudor roses and flowering branches vining their way up the gowns, melding historical reverence with Saab’s sophisticated artistry.

Dramatic capes of crystalized crepe and velvet dentelle layered atop matching gowns, wrapped in an enigma of enchantment and luxury. Touches of whimsy came to life in pearl drops and gilded bees humming through embroidered foliage, and ethereal gowns with near-transparent sequins in playful fantasies.

Saab has shown once more that while his inspirations may travel through time, the core of his collections — an unflinching commitment to glamour and the celebration of feminine beauty — remains the same. It is this consistency that continues to endear Saab to his clientele.



Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance to Dolce&Gabbana for Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
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Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance to Dolce&Gabbana for Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI
US singer Madonna stands at the end of the Dolce and Gabbana fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, in Milan, Italy, 21 September 2024. EPA/MATTEO BAZZI

Celebrities swarmed Milan Fashion Week on the last big day of runway shows on Saturday, sending crowds of adoring fans from venue to venue.
Madonna sat in a front-row seat at Dolce & Gabbana, along with Naomi Campbell and Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin. Her bandmate, Maneskin frontman Damiano David, showed up at Diesel, one of the season's hottest tickets, across town. Jacob Elordi took a seat on a bunny-shaped bean bag chair to take in the Bottega Veneta show.
Highlights from Milan Fashion Week's mostly womenswear previews for next spring and summer on Saturday, The Associated Press said.
Dolce & Gabbana Celebrate Madonna
Madonna attempted a semi-stealth entrance to the Dolce & Gabbana runway show draped in a black veil for a runway show referencing her 1990s heyday and celebrating the cone bra.
Models in bleach-blonde wigs strutted in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s signature corsets and fitted jackets, each featuring the aggressively feminine cone bra, in a collection that notes said “pays homage to an ironic and powerful female figure.”
Madonna wasn't cited specifically, but the stars of the Milan designers and pop star have been aligned ever since they made costumes for her 1993 Girlie Show tour. The tour promoted Madonna's “Erotica” album launched alongside her taboo-breaking coffee table book, “Sex.”
“Madonna has always been our icon. It’s thanks to her that a lot of things in our lives changed,'' the designers said in a note.
The collection, dubbed “Italian Beauty,” perfectly captured that moment in time. Cone bras peeked out of cropped jackets with a pencil skirt, garters swung from corsets and coats sculpted the body. Floral prints returned, accenting a color scheme of black, nude, red and white. Oversized cross earrings finished the looks. Heels were unapologetically high.
After taking their bows, the designers walked down the runway to greet their guest of honor. Madonna, still covered by the Chantilly long lace veil fastened by a gold and crystal crown, stood to embrace them both.
Bottega Veneta taps wonder Bottega Veneta's sometimes misproptioned, sometimes crinkled, always provocative collection explores the intersection between the real world and fantasy, adulthood and childhood. Creative director Matthieu Blazy's meaning is simple: To delight.
“We need beauty. We need joy,'' Blazy said backstage. ”We need that experimental act. It is also an act of freedom.”
In this universe, a dental clinic receptionist wears a skirt with a trouser on just one leg, which Blazy asserts as a playful act. In a familiar scene, a well-dressed father carries his daughter's pink and purple school bag. “Do we like the bag? I don’t know. Does it tell a story? Yes,'' Blazy said.
Each detail is deliberate, from a flat collar on a dress shaped like bunny ears to big colorful raffia wigs, even if their ultimate purpose is just for fun. Crinkled clothes signify a child's attempt to dress up, only to be ruined by the end of the day.
Blazy's characters carried what appeared to be ordinary plastic grocery bags, but which were made out of nylon and leather — part of the brand's ongoing technological innovations. The faux plastic bags signified everyday life, and were accompanied by brand’s trademark woven bags, one for a violin, another a wine bottle.
Ferragamo’s freedom of movement Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis celebrated the freedom of movement inherent in ballet in his new collection, inspired by archival photos of brand founder Salvatore Ferragamo fitting African American ballet dancer Katherine Dunham for shoes.
Dunham often trained and worked in the Caribbean, which allowed the British designer’s with Jamaican roots “to find a link between Ferragamo’s Italian-ness and my heritage.”
The collection recalls a 1980s way of dressing, with strong shoulders and oversized tailoring, also an homage to Russian ballet star Rudolf Nuryev, another historic Ferragamo customer.
To emphasize movement, Davis created long parachute dresses in silk nylon, suede and organza with a billowing bubble shape. The ballet dancer is honored in cashmere dancer wraps color-blocked with layered leotards. More subversively, shorts with frayed denim suggested a tutu.
Diesel elevates denim Diesel models tramped a field of 14,800 kilograms (nearly 33,000 pounds) of denim scraps “to highlight the beauty of waste, creating a dystopian backdrop for the brand’s latest collection of elevated denim.
The Veneto-based brand under creative director Glenn Martens has become a laboratory for textile experimentation. Short-shorts are embroidered with a cascade of extra-long fringe, for a skirt-like effect. Jeans are lasered to look destroyed; necklines on cotton sweatshirts look distressed but the effect is actually a jacquard with the cotton burned away to the tulle.
Marten's said the brand's “disruption” goes beyond its design. "We are pushing for circularity in our production,'' he said. In that vein: A coat was made from leftover spools of denim thread, while oversized jeans were from recycled cotton, some from Diesel's own production. And the scraps piled on the floor were to be repurposed after the show.