Photo: Thomas Nutzl / Courtesy of Zuhair Murad
Zuhair Murad showed considerable restraint this season and deserves a bit of praise for it. But that is the only tinge of recognition he’s going to get from us regarding his Fall 2019 collection. While this ready-to-wear offering is aptly less ostentatious than his social media-hyped couture shows, there’s still nothing that interesting about the whole lot. Sure, there are beautiful dresses, flowing evening gowns, and exquisitely tailored suits, but anyone can buy such styles from other labels as well. We can’t deny the unbelievable quality of these clothes—Mr. Murad clearly has major couture skills—but what we can’t brush off lightly is the lack of a new message or a fascinating idea. This season, he’s gone with an East-meets-West trope that’s over and done with, and even if it wasn’t, the narrative certainly didn’t resonate as well as he thought it would. In fact, instead of East-meets-West, this line was more of Past-meets-Present with all the familiar shapes and styles of bygone eras modernized in a very Murad-esque way. Case in point: those puffy balloon mini dresses and sharp-shouldered jackets. Can you say the 80s? They certainly did! Zuhair Murad is undeniably a fantastic designer and craftsman, but when is he ever going to do something different and modern? We may never know!
