Elie Saab dubbed his collection Heiress, but this aristo has a job. No lolling about in raw-edged silk pajama pants and fur-lined shower shoes for her. Saab emphasized daywear here, shirts that buttoned all the way up to the collar worn with flap-pocket trousers or pencil skirts, and for dresses, a fitted sheath or a V-neck with a pleated A-line skirt. The models wore cross-body bags or carried big totes—Saab meant business. He worked with strong, monochrome colors: royal blue, turquoise, raspberry pink. Most of them appeared in a bold abstract print used for a passage of floaty chiffon dresses. The dresses were a change of pace for Saab and not a bad one, even though most of Paris has moved on from the digital print craze.
For evening, Saab s big idea was to sculpt dresses at the waist with grosgrain. The look was graphic on an ivory column embroidered with dark brown ribbons. He re-created the effect on sequined cocktail numbers and gowns with geometric inserts of lace tracing the natural curves of the body. That experiment produced the collection s best piece, a three-quarter-sleeve raspberry pink dress on Magdalena Frackowiak that sizzled as she came down the runway.
