Beirut designers
conquer the Oscars

15 locally designed
dresses on the red carpet

A total of 15 locally designed signature dresses stole the spotlight at Elton John’s Vanity Fair Oscar party.

Zuhair Murad, Tony Ward, Elie Saab, Georges Chakra, Reem Acra, and Georges Hobeika have once again successfully exported their local talents to the world.

The international fame of local designers started in 2002, when Elie Saab dressed Oscar winner Halle Berry.

According to designer Abed Mahfouz, the success that Lebanese designers have achieved on an international level, has earned the country a remarkable reputation. “We became symbols of elegance, class and uniqueness,” he said. This fact is opening many opportunities for younger designers who are now more able to dream about the red carpet and achieve it, said Mahfouz. It also facilitates their way to fashion cities such as Milano, Paris, Moscow and others.

Mahfouz said that the local fashion industry still lacks serious efforts at the level of the sport-chic and casual clothing. “We all succeeded with our evening dresses, our haute couture and prêt-à-porter namely, but we still do not have a casual clothing label such as that of Cavalli, for example.” He said that he is currently working on a new e-shop concept where he will market his signature line of simple clothing items such as pants and skirts.

Fashion design is held in high esteem locally with many academies offering senior formation in this domain, including Esmod and the newly established Elie Saab fashion faculty at the LAU.