Ziad Nakad SS18 Collection at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week

For his Spring Summer 2018 collection, Ziad Nakad decided to celebrate the 'Goddess of wheat' and "Mother of the Earth".

Goddess who gathers the fruits of the earth and offers them to humanity; its cult is particularly flourishing in the countries where this wheat is found in abundance, in Sicily, in the region of Eleusis, in Crete, in Thrace and in the Peloponnese.

 Like a bird flying over the harvests, perfectly free, crossing a colorful sky, resplendent and singularly geometric:
 the pale blue of the sky

mixes with the yellow and gold of the wheat

, the green of the earth,

the coral of the ocean

and the bronze trees at sunset.

Wheat ears dot the dresses, a tribute to the most iconic representation of the goddess Demeter.

 Dress after dress, Ziad Nakad plays a subtle game that celebrates life in a precise mastered know-how and silk embroidery sublimated tulles.

 Ziad Nakad created this collection for a strong woman, assumed, voluntary but also and especially generous, inspired by one of the most favorable deities to humans, as a symbol of accomplishment and peace.

Grand finale showed an exquisite wedding gown

Maria Aristidou SS18 Couture Knitwear at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week

Maria Aristidou is a specialist in couture knit wear and has created a fantasy colorful world for spring-summer daywear-eveningwear for women that romance, positive energy and freedom are the safety keys for happiness.

Titled 'Secret Garden of Alexander', the collection is a playground of flower patterns with silk viscose and metallic yarns

where elaborate embroideries decorate the luxurious knit fabrics.

A collection with carefree curves

 and straighter sleek cuts.

Knitted turbans complete the secret garden story

Rani Zakhem Couture SS18 at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week

Tilted 'ODE TO A VOLCANIC WOMAN' Rani Zakhem celebrates life and joy in incandescent metaphors.

Fire is the essential element of the collection, dedicated to a volcanic woman. sometimes extinguished leaving precious streaks of diamonds on silky nights;

sometimes fluid, sizzling cascades of molten metal on a short dress with dripping panel

 and sometimes gently iridescent with warm colors,

As devouring as ethereal, the fire element comes in pyrotechnic explosions of gold, drawn by embroideries of crystals representing lava.

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Fringing cascading over shoulders like a volcano erupting

The image of the volcano is spun to the neck, columned and entirely gilded,

Reminiscent of a party in Vienna where the designer returned bedazzled, Klimt's Kiss, itself cast in gold in a powder dust of stars, infuses into the collection a modernist visual vocabulary, translated into sequins of geometric forms.

 Geometry that also brings us into the disco spirit of the 1970s with many references to Halston, especially in a loose single shouldered fluid dress with a golden Mao collar, in a fanned out degradé rainbow, gold to red through yellow and bright orange.

Gold, subtle and powdery, sculpts feuille d'or chiffon dresses, knotted in a wrap around bustier dropping into a deep backline, a tribute to Mireille Darc famously wearing Guy Laroche's backless dress. .

The theme of fire, is only a pretext chosen by Rani Zakhem to salute the masters who nourished his vocation:
A scarfed collared, split yellow chiffon, plissé soleil dress with mouton sleeves, is a sunny smile addressed to Jean-Louis Scherrer.

A short black silk satin, real Moujik tunic adorned at the bottom with pleated yellow faille embellished with a large bow of the same fabric is a nod to Yves Saint Laurent.

 Densely embroidered golden and silver tops top with long black split skirts are a reverence to Balmain.

Fluid drapes of silk jersey in pale gold and silver grey with a large bow of black silk satin on the shoulder are a tribute to the draper extraordinaire designer Madame Grès  .

Silk satin kaftans, embroidered on the edges with gold sequins and flame patterns at the bottom, recalls Rani Zakhem's native orient and plays the bond between his multiple cultures.

 Shaped in flowing lava and blazing fires, is the wedding dress, long and tight, in delicate whitish lace.