DUBAI: Reinvention is a term the fashion world is very familiar with: Heads of houses come and go, archival signatures are foraged and flipped, collections strategically expanded or cut according to social media impressions or sales success. For most brands there’s a continuous necessity to pivot. Not Elie Saab.
The Lebanese designer has cleverly curated an empire with slow, measured precision, bolstered by an absolute belief in the art of craftsmanship. “The code of my collections will always remain the same,” the glamour-focused Saab has often stated, referring to his luxury pairing of Western silhouettes with a Middle Eastern flair for ornamentation and embellishment. Rather than reinvent the wheel, he fine-tunes, dreaming up multi-generational investment pieces that are studied, worked and tweaked to perfection — an approach that has garnered him a loyal following and an impressive 45-year legacy.
To mark this anniversary (and simultaneously show some love to his longtime Saudi supporters), Saab is joining forces with Riyadh Season to host what promises to be an immersive one-of-a-kind fashion spectacle in the Saudi capital on Nov. 13. Titled “1001 Seasons of Elie Saab” — a nod to the famed “One Thousand and One Nights” collection of Arabic folktales — the event will forgo a standard runway presentation in favor of a theatrically orchestrated tableau of models, live music and 300 fresh looks for Fall 2025.
“We will be preparing something unprecedente.