Paris Fashion Week Rani Zakhem Couture Spring Summer 2018 - Gorgeous, Vibrant, Exquisite

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Category: Fashion

Published on Saturday, 27 January 2018 18:53

Written by Janet Walker

Fury, fervor, effervescence! For his first couture fashion show in Paris, Rani Zakhem celebrates life and joy in incandescent metaphors. Fire is the essential element of this sumptuous yet relaxed collection, dedicated to a volcanic woman.

As devouring as ethereal, the sacred element comes in pyrotechnic explosions and cascades of gold, drawn by embroideries of arachnoid crystals of lava on the black of a sheath whose draped top splits into a deep "V" neckline.

Some creations seem to be sculpted in the light, like this pearl-beige silk dress, where red, orange and gold gems glow with a myriad of sequins that bring precious reflections back to the surface.

Here the image of the volcano is spun to the neck, columned and entirely gilded, a recurring element of the collection and keystone of an architecture that favors ease, movement and, one would be tempted to add, the dancing flames that seem to devour the fabric barely touch the floor.

Reminiscent of a party in Vienna where the designer returned bedazzled, Klimt's Kiss, itself cast in gold in a powder dust of stars, infuses into the collection a resolutely modernist visual vocabulary, translated into sequins of geometric forms.

Geometry that also brings us into the disco spirit of the 1970s with many references to Halston, especially in a loose single shouldered fluid dress with a golden Mao collar, in a fanned out degradé rainbow, gold to red through yellow and bright orange.

Gold, again, subtle and powdery, sculpts a feuille d’or chiffon dress, knotted in a wraparound bustier dropping into a deep backline, a tribute to Mireille Darc elegantly quoting Guy Laroche.

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Clearly, the theme of fire, sometimes extinguished leaving precious streaks of diamonds on silky nights; sometimes fluid, sizzling cascades of molten metal on a short dress with dripping panel, and sometimes gently iridescent with warm colors, is only a pretext chosen by Rani Zakhem to salute the masters who nourished his vocation.

A scarfed collared, vertiginously split yellow chiffon, plissé soleil dress with mouton sleeves, is a joyful smile addressed to Jean-Louis Scherrer. Another, short black silk satin, real Moujik tunic adorned at the bottom with pleated yellow faille embellished with a large bow of the same fabric is a nod to Yves Saint Laurent.

A third composed of a densely embroidered golden top with narrow three-quarter sleeves, and a long black pleated skirt is a reverence to Balmain. The heart skips a beat when the liquid gold drape of a silk jersey habillé evening sheath appears, ending with a large bow of black silk satin on the shoulder, a tribute of the designer to Madame Grès.

A black silk satin kaftan, embroidered on the edges with gold sequins and flame patterns at the bottom, recalls Rani Zakhem's native orient and plays the bond between his multiple cultures.

A delicate apotheosis of this fashion show, shaped in flowing lava and blazing fires, is the wedding dress, long and tight, in delicate whitish lace, emphasizes by its precious simplicity the minimalist bias of a collection with budding emotions.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983, Rani Zakhem grew up in Kenya, Nairobi, where his family emigrated because of the war.

There, between the fairy colors of Kenyan fauna and the fashion magazines that his father brought to his mother from his travels, Zakhem projected himself into a glamorous universe that he promised to belong to one day.

Upon his return to Beirut with his family in 1992, at the end of the war, Rani Zakhem joined International College from which he graduated with a degree in economics in 2001. He went on to study Interior Design at the LAU (Lebanese American University) and graduated in 2005.

Admitted to Parsons, the New School for Design in New York, he completed his training in the field that fascinated him the most: fashion.

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Holder of an AAS in the spring of 2007, he conducts internships with big names in the industry such as Yigal Azrouël, Carlos Miele, and Patricia Underwood.

Rani Zakhem founded his eponymous high fashion house in 2009.

In less than ten years, the Rani Zakhem brand has built a strong network of points of sale all over the world, from New York to Baku, from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi, passing by Bahrain, Doha and Kuwait…

Content, Images, Rani Zakhem.Artistic Direction Janet Walker