July 6, 2017 |
Costume DRAMA. There was something of the medieval lady, well a lot of the medieval lady, to this. I want to call it fairytale, and there was enough sparkle, embellishment and shiny bits to suggest as much, but not in the princesses stuck in castles fairytale sense. Because these ladies were queens. Queens that, according to the release, had defeated their kings and now rule victoriously over their land – “warrior queens they were, are and forever will be.” Oooo.
And what better at to bid battle than in yards of chiffon, mouseline and tulle? Because Elie Saab is, and always will be, about fantasy gowns – but here they were toughened up with beaded bodices that cinched the waist, or long overcoats with flared bell sleeves. Something about the fit of the gown suggested armour, sculpting the girl’s bodies and long in the arms, plunging at the neckline. It finished, as an Elie Saab couture show always does, with a bride – this time in gold, hooded and with a train so long that it took two models to carry it after her. If you can’t do a two-man train at couture, when can you?
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
