-1784685450151.jpg)
By Jesse Scott
Seductive surrealism stole the show on day three of Haute Couture Week as Elie Saab invited one of the season’s most exclusive guest lists to a “Ball of Untamed Dreams” in the grand Theatre de Chaillot. Saab’s recent collections have epitomized joie de vivre with an exquisite blend of nostalgia and seduction. Blessed with an innate understanding of the international jet set and the private rooms in which they let their hair down, he has enthralled the fashion world with his explorations of the eternally intoxicating Manhattan midnight and those golden Ibiza evenings on which one can unironically go barefoot in a ballgown. Once a Saab girl, always a Saab girl. These dresses, like the havens of hedonism that inspire them, are generation-transcendent. And Couture Fall/Winter 2027, perhaps Saab’s most ambitious and well-executed effort yet, has a near-universal resonance among his muses.
Oh, to be alive in the first half of the 20th century. Perhaps more so than in any other age, designers, artists, aristocrats, and intellectuals inhabited the same rooms, revolving around Europe in an interminable circuit built upon a mutual love for les beaux arts and producing an unprecedented creative explosion that still shapes such arts today (what is fashion week in Paris without references to Schiaparelli, Chanel, Dali, and the Ballet Russes?). What propelled this explosion? At the risk of over-simplification, a passion for life that transcended social milieu and produced some of the most legendary parties this world has ever seen. Locations such as the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild (in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat) and the Villa Pausa (in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin) hosted real-life extravaganzas that would inspire literary figures like F. Scott Fitzgerald. And the 1951 “Ball of the Century” in Venice (a masked affair which saw Dior and Dali design each other’s costumes) drew a who’s who of society to a celebration that blurred the lines between the real and the imagined in ways that shape the mythology of an era to this day.
Elie Saab’s “Ball of Untamed Dreams” was curated in this spirit. Its protagonists, donning masks in an impressive array of structures and colors, channeled a devil-may-care attitude beneath dresses as impeccably tailored as they were indulgent. And a star-studded guest list including Leonie Hanne, Anna Della Russo, Heart Evangelista and Anastasia Barashkova arrived in their finest (albeit mask-less) to witness the spectacle.
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible
Surrealism, at its essence the act of rejecting the laws of nature and suspending disbelief, is in many ways one of the ultimate luxuries. So too is invisibility… the ability to disappear, and be anyone, for the night. Such was the allure of masked years balls a century ago, which has been heightened even more in the social media age. In translating these concepts to the runway, Saab embraced their inherent duality. Building off the interplay of darkness and light and the newly fierce interpretations of florals that marked his “Manhattan Midnights” ready-to-wear collection, he opened the show with striking looks in black, white and red. And this was just the beginning of the contrast play. A bondage-style bodice was paired with a delicate butterfly mask and a dramatic dress covered with red rose epaulettes in Look 4. Look 6 saw a traditionally elegant gown balanced by a serpentine lace mask and deadly transparent black gloves. Delicately pleated aquamarine Look 26 offered a flirtatious wink at guests it rippled like the waves of the sea. Look 10 appeared every bit the vengeful black widow in a bedazzled sheath with an elaborate train.
Elie Saab Couture FW26: Looks 4, 6, 10, 26. Courtesy of Elie Saab.
Of Masculinity, Femininity, and Magritte
The great surrealist René Magritte was specially cited as an inspiration by Saab. Opaline organza danced with pearls on flowing gowns that saw structure oscillate based on movement and left us wondering “ceci n’est pas le nouage?”. But these feminine forms were balanced out by masculine structure.
Elie Saab always wins my respect as one of the few designers to incorporate men’s looks into his couture collections. This season saw the tuxedo elevated from black-tie standard into “ball-of-the-century”-ready ensembles in Looks 8, 17, and 44. Look 44, with its billowing black cape, was the embodiment of the sorcerer Rothbart in Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Julius Reisinger’s Swan Lake. Seemingly spirited off the Bolshoi stage from that ballet’s own royal ball scene, he stalked down the runway in search of a swan to lure under his spell.
Elie Saab Couture FW26: Looks 8, 17, 44. Courtesy of Elie Saab.
Black Swans… and a Bride
Rothbart did not have far to look. The opening two elaborately feathered looks, the latter anchored by a voluminous cape trailing down the runway like wings, possessed the nobility yet darkness befitting this rarest of birds. The model in Look 15 sashayed down the runway with her arms crossed over her chest, like Swan Lake’s Odette feebly beating her wings as she succumbs at the ballet’s seeming denouement. But Look 56 was the coup de grace. Saab delivered one of the most iconic moments of this entire couture season when a model appeared wearing an elaborate swan-shaped feathered headdress.
Elie Saab Couture FW26: Looks 15, 56. Courtesy of Elie Saab.
Those who know Swan Lake are aware that Odette ultimately is reunited with her lover in the afterlife. Saab’s show too had a triumphant ending. With guests still audibly moved by the sea. headdress, the best bridal look of the week emerged. In the words of Saab, the “bodice was shaped in a curve of molten iridescence, with skirts shimmering in layers of champagne, crystal, and light gold.” Drifting down the catwalk head held high, was at once ephemeral and immortal. She exuded the magnetism of the women around whom “balls of the century” revolved…a contemporary princess crowned as a queen whose legend will live long after she passes.
A Wink and an Untamed Dream
An old adage tells us: “the better you dress, the worse you can behave.” Saab’s femme fatales, embodying the most aspirational aspects of couture, have never been more on point. For guests inhabiting their world, the show was a conspiratorial wink recalling past memories and beckoning with next summer’s wardrobe. And for those scrolling it on Instagram, it conjured dreams that their invites to the next masked ball wouldn’t get lost in the mail.