It is believed, that there are 3 things you can watch forever: the water, the fire and how the professionals work.  At least 2 of them you could have found at the backstage space of Zuhair Murad’s Ready-To-Wear Fall Winter 2017/2018 fashion show, which took place at Mona Bismarck American Center, housed in an amazing 19^th century palace.

The fire was controlled by an intensive, concentrated work of dozens of professionals, driven by the common goal to create a perfect show. If one had a chance to observe the room from the top panoramic position, everything that was going on could have been considered as a theatre performance, let’s say as a rhythmical, mechanical theatre of Robert Wilson. The choreography of movement evokes an image of a ritual tribal dance around a sacral totem, which is embodied by a stand with the clothes in the middle of the room.A legion of assistants helps to the models get dressed, make up artists and hair stylists simultaneously make the last refreshment. Photographers rumble around with their cameras and reflectors, making the portraits of those models who are ready. The observing journalists stay still as the statues in this room, which is getting narrower and narrower as sooner is the beginning.

The energy of people, the tension of the working process, the flashes of the cameras heat a flame of the show, which is about to start.  The models are building a line, getting ready to go down the marble stairs and pass through the labyrinth of halls, where the guests are already waiting.

Zuhair Murad’s latest collection got inspired by the spirit of revolting 1960th with their atmosphere of total liberation. The couturier reimagines and transforms the images, taken from French cinema and music of the epoch, referring to the looks of Françoise Hardy, Marianne Faithfull or Catherine Deneuve in the Luis Bunuel’s “Belle de Jour”.  Such elements as eyeliners, long bangs and baby doll dresses, implemented into the collection, immediately evoke the spirit of the times.

Yet using the classical cut, the designer pays a tribute to the contemporary dynamism of life. The construction of the collection reveals the consciousness of the challenges, which a woman has to deal with in the nowadays world.

Thus, Zuhair Murad offers the universal outfit, which can be worn both a day and the evening. But he does it with the traditional elegance and mastership, transferring his usual exquisite aesthetics. The macramé mini-dresses, tweed waistcoats, tartan suits, angora pullovers and fur coats made in a timeless palette of white, black, deep red and antique pink as principal elements of the collection express its spirit of luxury comfort and independence.

The collection distinguishes itself by that simplicity, which usually accompanies the real craft and professionalism.  In the same time, Zuhair Murad, as being a great artist with a unique sense of beauty, inspires a practicality of a form by the pure energy of artistic creation.

Being famous for his fabulous dresses, which embellish the world most prestigious red carpets, the couturier fulfills the most fundamental goal of fashion – he units the gorgeousness and functionality. 

By Maksym Teteruk

Camera Operator and Editor: Franck Renoir

Photo Courtesy of Zuhair Murad