“I love roses because they can mean so many things: romance, mystery, sexiness… there’s a lot of subtext in them,” Zuhair Murad offered during a fall showroom preview.
With its rich, somber color palette, lush fabrics and intricate embroideries, the lineup unfolded like a fantasy walk through a secret garden at night. The designer continues to expand his repertoire in tweed, adding rose appliqués in black embroidered leather to jackets, miniskirts and loose locks with dark jewel undertones. A black wool coat received the same treatment. Speaking of leather: this season it has been reintegrated into the line, for example as black trousers with high waist and wide legs.
Graceful craftsmanship on mixed media dresses in velvet, silk and lace with cut-out details, creeping rose appliqués dense with deep red sequins and black numbers ticked off with crystal cobwebs pushed this theme to the extreme. The sheer capes featured embroideries so lavish they seemed to defy gravity. But the queen of flowers looked more modern when treated with a lighter touch, for example, with black beads on a short white dress with long sleeves. Elsewhere, a bustier with a velvet bodice and dévoré floral skirt, or in deep burgundy jacquard on a black ground, carried a touch of old Hollywood.
Jersey dresses with leather trim at the neck or waist and an unadorned black velvet jacket, like the leather trousers, seemed well suited to an era of minimalist clothing and sartorial attention to longevity. In that vein, this season Murad will expand his brand of glamor into body-positive – not to mention more accessible – territory with a 13-piece capsule collection for Marina Rinaldi.
