“The theme is a little bit mystery,” Zuhair Murad offered backstage before his show. “You don’t have to show everything to everyone—we all need our secret garden.”
Make that a secret garden by night, a kind of shadowland of rich, dark-tinged hues like deep green, burgundy, moonglow, and gradient black. Murad’s aim was to walk the line between reality and illusion: “I try to consider the contrast of the woman’s character, her duality,” the couturier said. “On the one side she is a strong, independent character, on the other she’s romantic, with a pure heart. She loves fiercely, but she never loses herself.”
Putting those two ideas together in a single outfit sets a high bar, but the couturier rose to the occasion with some stunning feats of craftsmanship. An overgrown garden of roses seemed to spring from a velvet jacket bodice with a portrait neckline, or spill over a black strapless gown. A long, half-appliqué, half velvet evening gown was encrusted with night larks; midnight butterflies scattered over a blush satin bustier gown; and feathered capes alighted over tulle lavished with sequins, crystal, and beading. A draped asymmetrical gown in jade green velvet, as well as a strapless one in deep amethyst, and a crisply tailored black coat were striking enough to need no further embellishment. What also resonated: Nearly every piece moved with an ease that has been all too scarce on the runway this season.
Murad idolizes the women around him, in all their diverse beauties, and they love him right back. Which makes it all the more confounding that the couturier would make a stylistic choice that read like a form of muzzling—even if the mouthguard in question was a butterfly clamped over models’ lips. Unfortunately, that gesture cast an unwelcome, distracting shadow over an otherwise strong presentation.