For a designer renowned for his love of color, it was a surprise when Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad said that his favorite hue was black.
Murad released his Autumn/Winter 2023/2024 Haute Couture collection at the Paris Fashion Week in France.
For once, the shade dominated this nocturnally themed collection, full of gothic and medieval references that resulted in a dramatic lineup full of intricate lace patterns and shimmering black, silver, and jewel-toned embroideries.
“I’ve always wanted to do a collection made entirely with black,” he said before his show. “It’s a symbol of mystery, of energy, a symbol of seduction, a symbol of power.”
Accompanying the midnight universe, regal purple, and deep scarlet silks and velvets heightened the sense of drama, while the historic theme inspired his silhouettes. Hourglass figures were highlighted through corsetry or artful draping and pleating, drawing the eye toward classic sweetheart necklines, and shoulders were bare or cloaked with flowing trains, faces covered with dark, and lace-edged veils.
The rose was a recurrent motif, worked as 3D embroideries worn like jewelry at the neck, adorning the shoulders, or delicately decorating the length of a skirt. But lest one forgets that roses have thorns, Murad sent out a reminder in the form of a pantsuit, with barbed edges punctuating his silver pinstripe embroideries.
This fairy-tale feel was echoed elsewhere with motifs evoking creatures of the night. A multitude of giant spiders crawled across a leather trenchcoat, while on other pieces, their webs formed a macramé mesh in silver, like a cage around the body. Bats swooped across the shoulders and neck, their wings evoked in the dramatic lines of a black velvet bodice, and moths and birds of the night fluttered their wings and feathers in further embellishments. Guests were heard whispering, “Will the bride be in black too?” Not so — Murad’s fairy-tale princess is a traditional girl, and she wed in white.
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