Elie Saab (born 4 July 1964) is a Lebanese fashion designer.
His main workshop is in Lebanon, with additional workshops in Milan and Paris. He started his business in the early 1980s and specialised in bridal couture (expensive fabrics, lace, gemstones, Swarovski crystals, pearls, detailed embroidery, etc.).
He is the first Lebanese to be admitted to the fashion industry's governing body, Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture . Saab appeared as a judge on Project Runway: Middle East in 2016. As of March 2017, his couture collections are available in Paris, London, and Beirut, while his ready-to-wear clothes were in 160 retailers and his own boutiques Kate Middleton wore a Saab gown to the Royal Ascot in 2019, marking the first occasion where Saab has dressed a British royal family member. Read more
Early Life
Elie Saab is the eldest son of a wood merchant who raised five children in Damour, a southern coastal suburb in Beirut, Lebanon.
Born to Maronite Catholic Lebanese parents in Beirut, Saab began sewing as a child. At the age of eight, his attention had turned to fashion. With his sisters serving as models, he would cut patterns out of newspaper and search his mother's closet for materials.
Early years in fashion
In 1981, Saab moved to Paris to study fashion. He later dropped out to return to Beirut and open his fashion label. In 1982, when he was 18 years old, he worked with a team of 15 employees. At first his atelier specialized in bridal couture, making wedding dresses and gowns using expensive fabrics, lace, detailed embroidery, pearls, crystals and silk threads. In Beirut his reputation grew from dressing women in his neighborhood, and was soon enhanced by high society women sporting his designs.
In 1997, Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, and in 1997 he showed his first collection outside Lebanon in Rome.
In 1998, he started his ready-to-wear line in Milan, as well as an accessories line. During the same year, Saab held a fashion show in Monaco, with Princess Stéphanie of Monaco in attendance.
In 1999, one of his dresses thickly embroidered with emeralds and diamonds was reportedly sold for $2.4 million. Read more
0 Comments