Zuhair Murad doesn’t much like insects—except for butterflies and dragonflies, beauty muses of the bug world. So for Fall, he expressed their sinuous bodies and wing shapes as custom guipure lace patterns and strategically placed cutouts. Murad pointed to a special technique that allowed a puzzle of crepe pieces to be superimposed onto jersey, and showed off python-patterned lace embroidered with the same abstracted idea. A digitally rendered print stretched wing veining into a decorative filigree. Even the leather lacing on a grouping of dresses borrowed the insects’ bulbous abdomen shape, tiny as it is, for female body contouring. The most elaborate interpretation of all used openwork and embellishment across the entire torso and down the hip in a way that seemed as delicate and detailed as actual wings. Murad, who says he pored over books and examined some specimens back home in Lebanon, has become so synonymous with eveningwear that you easily forget he does daywear, too, and batwing sleeves supplied the most notable, tangentially thematic update. This luxe Lepidoptera collection allowed Murad to stretch his wings, but the OTT ornamentation was far less persuasive than a solid black crepe mermaid dress with lace godet pleats. Such relative simplicity made it a rare beauty.
—Amy Verner
Runway Feed