Elie Saab’s haute couture presentation of its Spring/Summer 2015 collection in Paris yesterday, was inspired by his native city of Beirut, which had been affectionately coined as the “Paris of the Middle East” for its beauty, before the onset of civil war in 1975 lasting till 1990.


After the showcase of dresses in tulip prints and silk gowns, the Lebanese designer revealed that Saab that a vision of his mother in an evening gown drove him onwards, “With every new collection I conceived, the striking image of my mother in this tulip print silk dress reappeared endlessly.”