Lebanese couture owns the world runways

Every fashion season, Paris makes room for a glittering delegation from Beirut. This October, as Paris Fashion Week wound came to a vlose, three prominent Lebanese houses showed their Spring/Summer 2027 collections. They are Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad and Georges Hobeika.

Their presence is part of a larger story. At July's couture week, Arab designers were described as now among the most recognisable interpreters of contemporary couture, bringing embroidery, theatricality and cultural memory to the Paris calendar. The Lebanese achievement is more striking given the context. Coverage of Hobeika's latest couture show noted the enduring presence of Lebanese designers on the global stage despite years of economic crisis and political instability at home. Beirut keeps exporting a language of glamour, built in its ateliers and worn on red carpets worldwide.

Elie Saab: Back to the codes

Saab's name became a household one through a single dress, the embroidered floral gown Halle Berry wore to the 2002 Oscars. For Spring 2027, he went back to that era. He showed 63 looks at the Carrousel du Louvre, and the collection, titled "À Fleur de Peau" (close to the skin), was inspired by Jean Harlow. It featured liquid gowns, sensual layering, embroidered roses on lingerie-influenced dresses and a palette of sage green, powder blue and blush.

The collection was also a statement of brand identity. Saab said he "pushed for all the codes of the brand," and noted that celebrities and a younger generation are coming back for them. Paris and Nicky Hilton, the "It-girls" of that early-2000s era, sat front row. The commercial picture backs him up. His son, CEO Elie Saab Jr., said ready-to-wear and accessories are driving sales, which are up around 20 percent this year. Saab is also preparing his first high-street collaboration, with H&M. 

Zuhair Murad: Tribute to the Mediterranean

Murad's house is celebrating its 31st anniversary this year. He has built it on body-conscious, heavily beaded eveningwear, and this season he loosened up. He showed on October 5, and WWD called the collection a tribute to the beaches of the Mediterranean, with fluid dresses, flowing fabrics and plenty of fringe.

Draped, asymmetrical skirts and high-necked trapeze silhouettes gave the clothes room to move, and he added casual jumpsuits and cocktail suits in black satin. The most interesting idea was technical: he reworked his signature embroidery to look like crochet, finished with beads and tassels. This follows a resort collection in which Murad said customers increasingly want versatile, understated pieces, while Middle Eastern clients still love brighter shades and intricate beading. There is a business angle too. He is working on a Paris flagship, now slated to open in the first quarter of next year.

Georges Hobeika: A spectrum of femininity

Founded in 1995, Maison Georges Hobeika divides its operations between Beirut and Paris and has dressed stars including Diane Kruger, Beyoncé and Zendaya. He held his first Paris show in 2001 and has shown couture there every season since. Since 2022 his son Jad has been co-creative director, and this collection is a father-and-son project.
The pair turned their attention to the full range of feminine expression, refusing to define it as a single silhouette. The collection moves from dark to light and from masculine energy to fluid, transparent softness. It opened with a sharply sculpted black jacket fastened with rows of crystals before loosening into sheer lace, fluid chiffon and red-carpet-ready gowns. New materials joined the house vocabulary, including a brocade satin and a guipure mesh that reinterprets its signature lacework in a more graphic key. Jad has described ready-to-wear as the area where he can experiment more freely, with the challenge being to keep the embroidery and craftsmanship clients love while widening what a Hobeika wardrobe can contain.

From Beirut, a city whose creative life has endured extraordinary upheaval, Lebanese designers continue to turn craftsmanship into an international language. Embroidery, lace, crystals, draping and meticulous handwork become more than decorative details; they carry traces of a culture that has long expressed itself through beauty and artistry.

Lebanese fashion has never been confined to a single aesthetic. It can be extravagant or restrained, nostalgic or experimental, rooted or outward-looking. What remains constant is the ability to transform heritage and imagination into something that can speak far beyond Lebanon. In Paris, that language continues to find an audience.