Elie Saab’s nostalgia for the Seventies

The Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab specialized in bridal couture in the early 1980s, using expensive fabrics, lace, detailed embroidery pearls, crystals and silk threads.

In 1997 Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda.

His Spring-Summer 2017 ready-to-wear collection is about dancing – the disco, the Seventies. He is quoted as saying: “I lived through those years and remember my parents then. I think I took a lot from that decade through them.”

There was a riot of stars, of the Pinball Wizard-meets-Evel Knievel variety in this collection. They appeared on multicoloured fit-and-flare mini dresses, which were worn under swoosh cloak jackets; as lace inserts on multi-ruffled black silk minidresses; or inlaid against stripes in paillette-heavy, gridded evening gowns. One can easily imagine Bianca Jagger cutting a rug in one such gown inside Studio 54.

Deeply Halston-esque silk gowns in rainbow stripes or primary colours made a few cameos. There were also pleated skirts and plunging necklines. The ’80s leg-of-mutton box was dutifully ticked. One model struggled to reconcile a bell-bottom with heels that must have been at least four inches high. Saab contemporized his output a little by teaming some full-tilt sequined gowns with matching sequined baseball caps—and some starry ones too.