March 3, 2014 |
ELIE SAAB AUTUMN/WINTER 2014
A sharp, sleek graphicism, but with a frisson of seduction. The autumn/winter 2014 Elie Saab collection dovetails the house’s signature femininity with a new geometry of cut, shape and decoration, to create a fresh and arresting hybrid.
The work of Rothko is the collection’s key starting point. This surrendered the collection’s linear focus as well as a rich palette of luminous colour, merlot, emerald and sapphire highlighted with pale rose. These shades, often in degrade from one hue through to another to create an optical illusion on the female form, are worked across fabrics from velvet, crepe and chiffon, through to cashmere and mink.
When black appears, it dazzles, the surfaces intricately worked with embroideries to build up dense, rich textures, like the strokes on a Rothko canvas. A dark romance is added through the introduction of a floral print, the brilliant colours of unfurling flowers silhouetted against black.
Lace, a signature of Elie Saab, appears again and again, a constant thread throughout the collection. It creates flirtatious bands of semi-transparency in day-dresses, splices apart furs and veils the entire body for evening.
Silhouettes are reminiscent of mid-century couture: the refined hourglass of the 1950s versus the graphic shifts.
By Sophia Neophitou
