From Elie Saab to Ashi, the Middle Eastern designers at Paris Haute Couture Week

Haute couture is truly a thing apart. Standing separate from fashion, this hallowed arena is where a few hand-picked designers are given free rein to show off their skills and spin magical worlds.

Catering to barely two thousand customers worldwide – haute couture seldom comes in under five figures – each season, a handful of names present their collections in Paris, with four of them coming from the Middle East. Here is what they showed this season for autumn 2024.

Elie Saab

A fishtail dress by Lebanese designer Elie Saab for autumn haute couture. EPA

Essentially a show in three parts, Saab's breathtaking Enchanted Serenade show opened with a parade of all-black gowns that progressed through inky-black, embroidered velvet gowns to sheer mermaid shapes with intricate surface work that spoke of the skill of his atelier. Next came a mid-section of the red carpet looks Saab is famous for. It shifted from teal to a glittering, all-sequin aubergine, before giving way to the final, impeccable act, as a long line of gowns in shades of bone and off-white. The tones weren't cream or sand, but something different, and more fragile.

As the looks drifted past, Saab built up a story of ethereal beauty, through beading, embellishment, sequins and layering. Each dress seemed to be constructed from layers of something precious and old, and one can feel the hands of the seamstresses on each piece, pouring their love and emotion into every stitch.

The show ended with, as per tradition, the bride, but under Saab's hand she became almost ghostly. Caught under layers of organza traced with gold, and a skirt so wide it filled the entire runway, she was hauntingly beautiful. Exquisite and utterly captivating, this was the most exquisite Miss Haversham ever seen.

Ashi Studio

Seemingly made from hair, a sculptural dress by Ashi Studio as part of the haute couture autumn 2024 week in Paris. AFP

For his ‘Sculpted Clouds” offering, Mohammed Ashi of Ashi Studio captured a sense of form and lightness through pieces that shifted around, beyond and away from the body.

Using clever plays of weight, he sent out treasures like a shredded beige-hued dress and wrap coat that turned out to be covered in wisps of beading, and a coat with padded hips and a tightly nipped waist with a vast, frilled bolero.

A velvet corset top was teamed with a bulbous taffeta skirt, while an opera coat of exaggerated proportions was smothered in cream and gold sequinning.

Ashi’s eye for shape and surface was taken to new heights as two looks, one in bitter chocolate and the other in cream were made from heavy fringes of what resembled human hair that coiled and arced away from the body in a sensual, sensorial overload.

There was a black silk velvet gown with a bodice stiffened to sit proud of the body like a board, while elsewhere a quilted, embroidered cream silk dress held its own shape beyond the model inside it.

In a collection limited to just the tones of cream or black, with little in between, the stripping away of colour turned all attention to the shape and decoration of each look, with shoulders, hips and cuffs exaggerated and manipulated into new shapes and dimensions.

Georges Hobeika

A strapless look by Georges Hobeika for autumn haute couture 2024. Photo Georges Hobeika/Instagram

Taking his haute couture collection to be displayed in the sunshine, Georges Hobeika showed a collection that was a canny mix of both dramatic, red carpet moments and addressing to the practical, everyday needs of his clients.

He offered neat twin set suits for a daytime feel, that were elevated with edges of sequins, while his foray into men's couture offered soft shirts with pleat-fronted trousers and a boxy suit that shifted from taupe into black, with smudging of beads around the hips.

His women's evening wear was about languid elegance, such as a long ivory skirt worn with an embellished jacket, or a masculine blazer worn with a floor-grazing sequinned skirt. Naturally, there were plenty of gossamer pieces too, as dresses in soft pastel shades of peachy pink and pale pistachio carried trails of silvery beading and floaty panels.

Hobeika also delivered a series of looks that were razor sharp in their cutting, creating a contemporary, edgy feel. A simple white, strapless dress came with silver gloves that were joined to a hood, that was interesting and slightly space-agey. Next up, another strapless look – now complete with a full skirt in heavy black satin – showcased a beaded bodice in beads in watery tones of greens and blues.

Zuhair Murad

A look from the Zuhair Murad autumn 2024 haute couture collection. Getty Images

Zuhair Murad's clients look to him for the kind of gown that will silence a room, and here he delivered exactly that and more. From a short, patent leather-belted trench coat studded with chunks of crystal, to a tuxedo jacket-dress edged with giant sequins, Murad has a knack for vampish drama that is second to none.

A fitted gown in blood-red velvet arrived gathered on one hip and a flourish of beading on one shoulder, while a black dress carried silver beading as a starburst from its high neck. A halter neck top made from a spiders web of pewter crochet was teamed with a length of metallic, semi sheer material, loosely wrapped into a skirt in a way that was effortless and off-hand. Another deep red satin dress wrapped into a floor-length kick flare number. With the barest hint of skin left on show at the stomach, it encapsulates all that Murad does best; dress the woman at her most womanly.

Rami Al Ali

Rami Al Ali presented his couture 2024 collection on atheletes. Photo Rami Al Ali

While not part of the haute couture schedule, designer Rami Al Ali always shows a collection of his evening wear alongside the storied event.

Taking his cues from the upcoming Olympics, for this outing he presented his usual elegant array of looks – but this time he had them worn by athletes. They included Nawal Meniker, a high jumper representing France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games; basketball player Luna Kozacska; sprinter Olivia Jean Gilles, and Maribel Koucke, a surfer and skateboarder. The result is a short film called Couture in Motion that shows off the lightness and wearability of his clothes like never before.

Kozaczka wears cigarette trousers with a top that has great frills of netting framing golden mesh, as she does tricks with a basketball, later changing into a straight cut dress in white organza, covered in a haze of pink paillettes as she dribbles the ball. Runner Jean-Gilles is shown sprinting in a split fronted oatmeal tones dress, covered in coiling beading, and then in an all-black, high-necked gown smothered in glossy fringing.

For those who imagined couture gowns to be tight, restrictive and heavy, Al Ali offers a new alternative – exquisite gowns that are light as air.