Rabih Kayrouz gets that, without comfort, there is no elegance. “I’ve always wanted to make my work like uniforms,” he explained during a showroom visit. “I look at my work less as a fashion object than a design object. What’s good about design is that it lasts over time despite trends. It’s not just a spur-of-the-moment fashion impulse.”
Last year, during the first lockdown—a period when he was to have toured the U.S., India, and points in the Middle East—the designer reconnected with a desire to revisit long-standing favorites, pieces that had taken considerable time to perfect. “It was about letting things I had done live a longer life,” he offered. “More than fashion, these are clothes, and why shouldn’t a jacket last as long as a vintage table?” The events in Beirut last August crystalized his resolve to focus on essentials for the here and now, plus the occasional flight of fancy, and to allow himself time to have fun doing it.
Kayrouz culled from 20 years’ worth of archives and fabrics, and consolidated his icons for fall. Arguably the most versatile among them is a graceful yet statuesque jacket from 2014, a kimono-abaya hybrid but with structured shoulders and a Parisian attitude. This season it comes in versatile, universally flattering iterations like black velvet (without fastenings) or tennis stripes (double-breasted). Likewise, the designer’s best-selling straight coat—which typically is worn open—is now engineered so that the wearer can button in a panel for more protection from the elements.
In the same spirit, Kayrouz revisited his idea archive for “gesture” pieces, spanning a gold lamé bustier dress that coaxes glamour out of a single square of fabric, a poncho-like trench anchored simply by its cuffs, and a skirt that evokes a sarong with a couture touch. Fluid numbers include dresses in an ink-blot print from 2013 that resembles the season’s omnipresent leopard print without going literal; lavaliere blouses with tails trailing behind; and haute takes on the shirtdress that call to mind an Impressionist painter’s blouse (it also comes in a royal blue corduroy). An ethereal pleated black dress can be worn belted or not; appearances aside, it’s a workhorse in disguise. The same goes for much of this collection, reflecting Kayrouz’s stance that, though he may be the designer, it’s the woman who makes the clothes.
