Opening the second day of Fashion Forward’s catwalk presentations, the young Beirut designer Bashar Assaf presented breezy jackets, long skirts, light trenches, minis and a series of two-piece looks in what seemed to be crisp cotton.
There was also menswear: generously cut sweatshirts, trousers and one outstanding navy blue cape that seemed to be equally inspired by kimonos and karate uniforms.
It was a technically marvellous show.
And it was thanks not just to Mr Assaf’s streamlined cuts but also to his approach to modernising shapes. The whole thing worked because it was complex, yet unostentatious.
The background music was, curiously, the soundtrack of horror films – and the models (dudes included) were painted with exaggerated bleached eyebrows. Collectively they all looked like a post-apocalyptic work force.
The weaker looks were the dresses accessorised with a bland black belt. They came off as clinical, similar to the early experiments of the young American designers Alexander Wang and Joseph Altuzarra, who Mr Assaf is obviously inspired by.
