Considering what Jennifer Lopez did for Donatella Versace’s fame by donning that plunging green gown at the Grammys in 2000, goodness knows what awaits Charbel Zoe and his Lebanese fashion brethren.
For this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, J.Lo’s body-hugging evening gown, sliced into curvy cutouts and dripping with silvery sequins, was enough to send the gossip bloggers into overdrive, putting a new designer on the international fashion radar.
Farther down the red carpet, Beyoncé sported another Lebanese newcomer, Nicolas Jebran, before slipping into a Zuhair Murad gown to accept one of the night’s trophies.
This year’s award shows made it clear: Lebanese designers are America’s new red-carpet darlings. With Angelina Jolie in Elie Saab at the Oscars, Robin Wright in Reem Acra at the Golden Globes and Rita Ora in Zuhair Murad at the GQ Men of the Year awards, it’s no wonder most Lebanese designers’ Web sites have a special section titled “celebrities.”
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Murad said his brand has been on a consistent growth path season after season but acknowledged, “The demand from private clients, celebrity stylists, buyers and fashion editors has been especially high this year.”
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His couture and ready-to-wear collections are up 22 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Asked about the secret of his success, the designer claimed it was simple, saying, “I want my woman to have that ‘wow’ effect.”
A pioneer of Lebanese fashion in the West who opened the door for the likes of Elie Saab before settling down in New York, Acra said hers and her colleagues’ appeal lies in an “in-between-the-cultures approach….We give the Hollywood woman something different, something that she doesn’t get from any other American or French designer.”
Best known for her dresses with a fresh, sexy edge, Acra argues that while there is no couture in America, the Lebanese have managed to blend that part of French heritage with an American twist.
“That’s what’s real about it,” she said, adding, “Beirut itself is a blend of cultures and religions. It has the most open-minded people in the Middle East, a very high level of education and a predilection for a certain lifestyle that makes people want to dress up, go party and have fun. If you ask me what the Beirut woman is like, I will tell you: She’s a sexy one.”
Acra reminisced about how, as a child growing up in the Lebanese capital, she was surrounded by a fleet of skilled tailors. “Beirut was the spot where people came to have a dress made,” she said. “That’s the way it has always been.”
The next generation is already waiting in the wings. Next to Zoe and Jebran, Murad recommends adding Karoline Lang to the list of ones to watch from Lebanon.