Fall 2025: Zuhair Murad’s A Sheer Desire

For Fall 2025 couture, Zuhair Murad returned to familiar territory—Hollywood glamour—but with a sharper point of view. Drawing on the allure of Barbara Stanwyck and Rita Hayworth, the designer framed the collection as a dialogue between the screen sirens of the past and the empowered heroines of today. The result was a lineup that balanced theatricality with intention, opulence with relevance.

The collection opened with strongly sculpted shoulders, plunging necklines, and fluid drapes that recalled the tension between structure and seduction characteristic of the Golden Age. The references were unmistakably 1940s; the execution was not. Murad's tailoring had an immediacy—clean, precise, and suited to a contemporary woman who embraces glamour without nostalgia weighing her down.

Running through it all was a tribute to the legendary costume designers of classic Hollywood—Edith Head, Jean Louis Berthault, Adrian Greenburg—whose fingerprints could be felt in the architectural gowns and impeccably cut jackets. But Murad did not imitate: he distilled their legacy and filtered it through his own vocabulary of red-carpet drama, bias-cut fluidity, and controlled extravagance.

Where the designer excelled, as always, was in embroidery. This season, he pushed his atelier's craftsmanship to baroque richness. Pearls and cabochons formed swirling motifs that wrapped the body like sculptural jewellery; lace was reinterpreted as damask-like patterning reminiscent of old Hollywood studio sets. The embellishment was heavy on paper yet surprisingly light in movement—evidence of technical refinement rather than overindulgence.

Fabric pairings offered a nuanced narrative: velvet against tulle, mousseline brushing against charmeuse, sheer panels reinforcing rather than undermining structure. Faux fur—plush, meticulously worked, and entirely synthetic—appeared throughout, a deliberate statement on luxury meeting ethical shifts without sacrificing drama.

The palette carried the mood forward: warm browns, molten golds, smoky ivories, deep burgundies, and the occasional blush that burned like a spark against the darker tones. It felt wintery but cinematic, the kind of colour story that comes alive under spotlights or camera flashes.