Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
In a world increasingly captivated by speed and spectacle, Elie Saab offered, for a fleeting moment in Paris, a rare pause a breath suspended between reality and reverie. His Spring/Summer 2025 haute-couture collection, unveiled within the austere concrete walls of the Palais de Tokyo, was not merely a presentation of garments. It was the unfolding of a dream, delicate as dawn light upon water, ephemeral as a petal carried by the breeze.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
The collection opened with gowns that seemed to drift rather than walk, crafted from layers of organza and tulle so fine they appeared woven from mist. A palette of soft pastels pale lavender, faded peach, tender blue bathed the runway in a light that felt almost sacred. Crystals and sequins, hand-embroidered with monastic devotion, shimmered like dew upon these ethereal silhouettes, creating the illusion of a garden just before sunrise, when the world still belongs to silence.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
As one look followed another, it became clear that Saab was not content to merely dress the body; he sought to clothe the soul. His embroidery spoke in a forgotten tongue, one that remembers the fragility of beauty and the inevitability of loss. Each garment was a meditation on impermanence, a whispered reminder that all things exquisite are destined to fade.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
And then, the unexpected. Denim but not as we know it. In Saab’s hands, this humble fabric was transformed, elevated to the realm of the sublime. Cut into liquid columns and sweeping capes, rendered in a blue so deep it seemed borrowed from the twilight sky, the denim became a canvas for silver jasmine appliqués and intricate beading. It was a bold gesture, a dialogue between the quotidian and the divine, as if to say: even the most ordinary material contains within it the seed of wonder.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
Every gown bore the weight of countless hours of craftsmanship, yet moved with a weightlessness that defied logic. The models glided as if guided not by human intention, but by some quiet current of grace. Saab’s mastery lay in this delicate balance: between structure and softness, between what is seen and what is felt.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
The final look appeared like a benediction. A bridal gown of diaphanous tulle, its cathedral-length veil embroidered with constellations in pearl and crystal, seemed less worn than inhabited, as if the model herself had become a celestial body, trailing stardust as she passed. In that moment, time seemed to hold its breath. The audience, too, forgot to breathe, caught between awe and longing.
Elie Saab’s Spring/Summer 2025 haute couture collection was not merely fashion. It was a love letter to the transient, a reminder that in a world so eager to consume, there is still virtue in creating something meant only to be cherished, not possessed. And as the final shimmer of crystal disappeared into shadow, one could almost believe that, for a heartbeat, the ordinary had been transformed into the eternal.
Photo Credits: Elie Saab Reproduction
