A lone couturier from Dubai, the Syrian-born Rami Al Ali held his sophomore couture week outing in a venue tucked away on the Rue du Mont Thabor, a tiny side street sandwiched between the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue Saint-Honoré that is best known for niche jewelry boutiques and fashion eateries.
Backstage before the show, the designer—who this year celebrates 25 years in the business—shared that this season’s inspiration came largely from the 13th-century philosopher Rumi. “I’m a big fan of his work,” the designer said, explaining how the Persian poet-philosopher found harmony in fragments, a concept that became the title for this collection. “It’s about how opposites can create balance and synergy,” he said.
Contrasting with many of his peers in that region, Al Ali’s collection stood out for intentional restraint. Many of these pieces, in deep-sea colors ranging from oyster greige to sea foam, shell pink, and deep coral, warranted a close-up. “The details might appear chaotic, but in fact they are all organized,” the designer allowed. “If you squint, you can see it.” Sequins, for example, were worked in organic motifs, either encrusting the outside or slipped between layers of laser-cut organza.
The designer referenced his origins with Persian carpets, pixelated with a light touch. “When you think of those, there’s a lot of noise, a lot of details, but actually it’s very vast,” he explained. A highlight were dresses with sheaves of graceful horizontal pleats—a continuation of a technique explored in previous collections—that recalled mushroom gills and wafted poetically with every stride, projecting a serene kind of luxury. Other standouts included a sky-blue bustier gown whose skirt was sliced into lamellas lined with gold, or a seafoam green column shimmying with tiered asymmetrical fringe. The inner lining of a cutaway coral gown sparkled like a geode. “I think it’s cooler to hide than to show,” the designer offered. At a time when flaunting anything and everything is common currency, this show offered a breather—not to mention some ladylike alternatives to the usual contenders.
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