Zuhair Murad is feeling as cold as ice for fall, with his collection a study in calm and cool colors of minty greens and blues against black and white.
It represents a landing for Murad, who has spent seasons visiting more tropical climes such as Peru or Rome for his inspirations. His pre-fall collection visited the Northern Lights and took cues from Viking motifs, which he carried through in this winter collection. This time around his embellishments are stars in bright bursts across the body, or the crystalline sparkle of snowflakes on glass.
Murad said he has been challenging himself to work through ideas rather than bounce around locations from season to season. While he sticks to the same cool color palette from pre-fall, shapes are slimmer and sleeker. He also proposed several cape shapes as both dresses and outerwear. Sequined shoulders add a power play on a full-length velvet version.
Velvet was a key textile for the collection, adding a warm touch in a deep wine color, and Murad played with contrast in his fabrics, mixing velvet with satin or jersey with sequins, for example, on many of his figure-hugging silhouettes. There were also plenty of cold shoulder treatments here, with elegant clavicle-exposing necklines.
A sequined zebra print, high slits and sheer paneling added the expected dash of Murad sexiness, and kept it just this side of Elsa territory.
