Elie Saab

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Elie Saab bigraphy, stories - Lebanese fashion designer

Elie Saab : biography

July 4, 1964 –

Elie Saab (Arabic: إيلي صعب) (born July 4, 1964), sometimes known simply as ‘ES’, is a Lebanese fashion designer. His main workshop is in Lebanon, with additional workshops in Milan and Paris. Saab has become an established name for dressing up royalty and celebrities.

Personal life

Saab met his future wife Claudine when her mother bought one of his designs. They married three years later. They are the parents of three sons who live in Geneva.

Saab has three houses in Lebanon: an old house in Gemmayze region of Beirut, a house in Rabieh and a chalet in Faraya. He also has properties in France and Switzerland.

Early life

Elie Saab is the eldest son of a wood merchant who raised five children in Damour, a southern coastal Beirut suburb.

Born to Maronite Catholic, Spiegel. Year 2007 parents in Beirut, Saab is self-trained and began sewing as a child. At the age of nine his attention was already turned to fashion. He used to cut patterns out of newspaper and searched his mother’s closet for any lace he could find. He used his sister as his model, raiding his mother’s closet for anything he could drape upon her.MacFARQUHAR, N. (2002, Apr 27). An unlikely couturier from an unlikely ‘Paris’. New York Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/432043932?accountid=8555 However, his family was pleasantly surprised when he turned out a blue and white striped gown for his sister.

Notable clients

Saab is an established designer for royalty and celebrities.

Royalty dressed by Saab
  • Princess Beatrice of York
  • Clotilde, Princess of Venice and Piedmont
  • Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein
  • Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg
  • Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece
  • Queen Rania of Jordan
  • Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana of Thailand
  • Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
  • Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
  • Princess Madeleine of Sweden
Some celebrities that Saab has dressed
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Halle Berry
  • Beyoncé
  • Angelina Jolie
  • Anggun
  • Mila Kunis
  • Katy Perry
  • Rihanna
  • Emma Watson
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones
  • Michelle Dockery
  • Aishwarya Rai

Career

In 1982, Saab launched his Beirut-based fashion label when he was 18 years old with a team of 15 employees. At first, his atelier was specialized in bridal couture making wedding dresses and gowns using rich fabrics, lace, detailed embroidery, pearls, crystals and silk threads.http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/designers/elie-saab/ In Beirut, his reputation grew from dressing the women in his neighbourhood, and was soon enhanced by high society women who began sporting his designs.http://www.vogue.com.au/people/designers/elie+saab,347

Elie Saab’s style is a unique fusion of western and eastern culture.http://www.fccihk.com/files/dpt_image/4_events/gala/2012/invitation/French_Chamber_Gala_Dinner_2012_Elie_Saab.pdf He uses noble materials such as taffeta, organza, noble and satin paired with more fluid and light fabrics.

In 1981 he moved to Paris to study fashion, but ended up returning and opening his workshop in 1982.

In 1997 Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda, and in 1997, showed his first collection outside Lebanon in Rome. In 1998, he started ready-to-wear in Milan, and in the same year, he held a fashion show in Monaco which was attended by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

In 1999, Queen Rania of Jordan wore Elie Saab for her coronation. One of his dresses—somewhat less demure, presumably, than Queen Rania’s, and thickly embroidered with emeralds and diamonds—was reportedly sold for $2.4 million.http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2011/11/elie-saab-201111

He became an overnight success after he became the first Lebanese designer to dress an Oscar winner, Halle Berry, in 2002., About.com. Retrieved on 2009-03-23. Berry wore a burgundy gown by Saab to the 2002 Academy Awards when she won for Best Actress. After this night, the designer was bombarded with interviews and appeared on at least 5 TV networks.

Berry later wore another dress by Saab, this time a gold dress, to the 2003 Oscars.http://www.the949styleguide.com/2011/02/the-beautiful-world-of-elie-saab.html