As he was getting ready to celebrate his 25-year wedding anniversary this month, Elie Saab was in a romantic mood, thinking about the golden wedding dress his bride wore and reflecting on his early works from the 1990s when he launched his business specializing in beautiful, princess gowns with delicate laces and plenty of golden embroideries. For his fall 2015 haute couture collection titled “Shades of Gold,” the Lebanese designer sent down the runway his usual collection of scintillating embroideries on tulles and as-light-as-a-feather laces, mainly in golden hues, playing on transparencies, but also thicker than usual relief effects, with the use of micro-bead works.

His byzantine princesses walked moodily to an edgy soundtrack of Nirvana's “Come As You Are” and Air's track “Playground Love,” and while they all sported a tiara, they also let their hair down, toning down the prissiness of the overall look.

The designer favored motifs of vines and foliage, along with some graphic interpretations of Byzantine motifs and silk gowns with a colorful peonies print. While gold was the dominant color, there were also soft shades of pink and blue, along with some black and emerald green (one of the stand outs of the collection was a long emerald gown with raised bead embroideries).

In terms of silhouette, Saab mixed both high and plunging necklines, short and long flowing sleeves, sleek gowns and puffier ones, along with some beautiful empire line dresses. This season he also used colored fur sparingly to decorate a collar or to create interesting sleeve effects on the shoulders.

SHOP ELIE SAAB