Lebanese designer Elie Saab has stepped into menswear territory for the first time while working on a new couture collection. His team, masterfully creating luxurious evening looks from a scattering of rhinestones, sequins and feathers, meters of silk, satin, organza and chiffon, tried their hand at designing for men.

The result of the creative process of Elie Saab Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2022-23 was shown at the Fashion Week in Paris. 

In the debut men’s couture line, the designer has created impressive raincoats and suits to match them, as well as women’s dresses, decorated with rich hand embroidery.

“I feel that men want to show themselves,” the couturier told WWD in a preview of the fall collection, filled with shades of dusty pink, blue and gold, reminiscent of “the moment when the setting sun falls into the sea, transforming its color.”

A theme of flame red and black kept the first part of the collection on a high-drama note. Black mesh see-through gowns were heavily embroidered with serpentine curlicues, which were repeated on the men’s generous caftans, while shapely sculptural column dresses in deep red taffeta had cloud-like sleeves poufed up to the ears. Then Saab took a turn for the dreamy, but without letting the pyrotechnics out of the picture. “I was thinking about how the light turns magical, into pink gold at dusk, after the sunset and before the evening,” he mused. A parade of powder pink and nude mesh tulle numbers followed. Variously shaped but all equally glamorous, they were bathed in shimmering sequins in every possible dimension, together with beaded fringes, embroidered tassels, drippings of crystals, and appliqués of organza petals.

Offered in pink and gold hued brocade, masculine suits with cropped tuxedos were wrapped in trailing stoles encrusted with lace. Billowy capes in hammered silk were worn over matching slim trousers, and paired with bohemian black poet shirts. Peacocks will have to prove their worth, if they want to show off their plumage in Saab’s unabashedly sumptuous attires.