'The industry will have to step up its game': Zuhair Murad on the future of haute couture after the pandemic ends


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As the effects of the coronavirus outbreak become ever more apparent, it's clear the only sensible way forward is to suspend large-scale events where crowds might gather to help halt the spread. One such event to be waylaid is haute couture fashion week, which was scheduled to take place in June.

Featuring a select group of hand-picked designers, haute couture is, and always has been, about catering to the sartorial needs of a small and extremely wealthy elite. Although only thought to number 4,000 customers worldwide (exact figures are hard to come by as couture designers are famously cagey about clients and the income they generate), this small number of ultra-rich support and maintain an industry that employs thousands of people across numerous countries.

So ,with the latest round of the bi-annual spectacle abruptly cancelled and an entire season relegated to the dustbin, where, exactly, does this leave the designers?

A dress from the spring 2020 haute couture collection by Rami Al Ali. Courtesy Rami Al Ali
A dress from the spring 2020 haute couture collection by Rami Al Ali. Courtesy Rami Al Ali

“We have put all our related operations on hold,” explains designer Zuhair Murad. With the label's main headquarters in Beirut, and a second atelier in Paris, Zuhair Murad is known for its sense of romance and femininity, and is a firm favourite with the likes of Najwa Karam, Jennifer Lopez and Priyanka Chopra, for its flattering silhouettes and delicate detailing.

“Realistically speaking, creating a couture collection in the necessary timeframe requires collective teamwork and effort, and we certainly do not want to compromise our team members’ health. It’s the most important thing for us and we will always prioritise it over anything else."

With a strong tradition of dressing up, coupled with a deep appreciation of handwork and the unique, the Mena region is, not surprisingly, a stronghold of couture houses. Alongside Zuhair Murad, Elie Saab, Rami Al Ali, Georges Hobeika, Michael Cinco and Maison Rabih Kayrouz are all regional names that have been invited to show at couture week by the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the regulatory body that oversees the industry, and the only entity capable of bestowing the title of haute couturier to a brand (in short, if it is not recognised by the Chambre, it is not haute couture).

Admittance means adhering to strict and demanding regulations, from a minimum number of seamstresses employed to the number of fittings customers can expect, all while embracing new technologies as well as preserving ancient know-how.

Rami Al Ali, a Syrian designer with an atelier in Dubai, has dressed the likes of Beyonce, Chanel Iman and Helen Mirren. The label's gowns are infused with elegance and a touch of the designer's Middle Eastern heritage. With the next season suddenly gone, and with it the potential income, Al Ali remains pragmatic.

“I am still debating what would be the right decision for this season. I think it is all depends on how fast we can go back to normal life practices," he says. "I would most likely design a capsule collection and create a visual campaign to launch it. I don't believe designing a fully fledged collection will be a practical decision to many, as much as we all want to keep this industry and all its suppliers alive."

Zuhair Murad spring 2020 haute couture. Courtesy Zuhair Murad
Zuhair Murad spring 2020 haute couture. Courtesy Zuhair Murad

Couture pieces are lavished with exquisite and delicate embellishment, and so beautifully made it can be hard to believe it is work done entirely by hand, routinely taking 300 hours to complete just one dress. And that excellence does not come cheap, with prices starting at around $20,000 (Dh73,450) for something unadorned, quickly spiralling upwards to the $40,000-$80,000 mark, reaching as high as $1 million – the reported price of a haute couture Dior wedding gown.

Yet, despite these huge figures, couture runs with extremely high overheads and uses the finest materials. Taking months to complete, the skilled petite mains, as couture seamstresses are known, labour for countless hours on a single piece, and one dress can use tens of metres of frighteningly expensive fabric. Even couture house Viktor & Rolf openly admits it exists partly due to the cash injection given by its perfume arm.

People are connected via apps, working remotely or living an experience virtually, and it is becoming more and more of a practical solution

“So far we are having to cancel the ready-to-wear pre-fall 2021 collection and the couture fall / winter 2020-21 one," explains Murad. "We’ve also had to suspend the upcoming bridal collection. It will certainly affect us all because we work six months prior to the actual seasons."

However, perhaps all is not lost. Italian company Giorgio Armani cancelled its live show at Milan Fashion Week in February as the coronavirus outbreak began to curtail events, instead opting for an online stream. Shanghai Fashion Week did the same, live-streaming new collections from 150 designers in March. Following that lead, there may be a digital solution, suggests Al Ali.

"For the past few years, social media has taken a major role in connecting us directly with our clients and has proven to be a powerful tool. I believe it would be the fastest and safest method to launch any new product at this time. People are connected via apps, working remotely or living an experience virtually, and it is becoming more and more of a practical solution. Brands are paying much more attention to such social platforms, seeing the great effect it has and how fast consumers are adapting to it.”

In Shanghai, switching to digital allowed designers to offer customers a personalised viewing experience, as well as a see-now, buy-now option of the current season, plus the ability to place pre-orders on the autumn / winter collection. The result was an impressive 11 million views and a cool $2.82 million (Dh10,356,450) in sales.

However, Murad has misgivings about this digital approach, as he feels it cannot replicate the hands-on experience of seeing couture up close.

"For couture, customers want to physically see and feel the fabrics, they want to experience the many hours put into the gown," he says. "Customers enjoy the luxurious purchasing experience associated with couture, so it will be a bit tricky to implement that digitally. The early stages of made-to-measure would be easy to adapt to, as meetings could be done via Skype or Zoom."

The second stage, however, usually requires physical interaction, he says, as the client and maison discuss the custom-made looks.

"It will definitely be challenging for us to come up with a new, safe business model to replace this phase, while maintaining the customer experience. The couture fashion industry would really have to step up the game and discover new business models that are adaptable to the situation."

Murad is right – there is yet to be a digital alternative to the deeply personal experience of having clothes made to measure, so the couture industry need not panic just yet. After all, there will always be the super rich who like to dress in beautiful clothes. Al Ali instead sees this enforced break in the calendar as an opportunity to explore new ways to connect with clients, who are now ready to embrace a new approach.

Rami Al Ali haute couture spring 2020. Courtesy Rami Al Ali
Rami Al Ali haute couture spring 2020. Courtesy Rami Al Ali

“We have seen a movement of virtual shows starting to appear during fashion weeks, and we have also reached a level of evolution where the focus is mainly on the experience," explains Al Ali.

"Fashion has always been, and will always be, the mirror that reflects the transformations of society and the human race, so probably the near future will be about what you show and how you show, not where you show."

As designers before them have done in testing times, undoubtedly the couture industry will survive this strange and disconcerting time, although in quite what form, we will have to wait and see.

But what we do know is that, without them, the world would undoubtedly be a far less beautiful place.

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WHAT ARE NFTs?

     

 

    

 

   

 

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that represent ownership of unique items. They allow the tokenisation of things such as art, collectibles and even real estate.

 

An NFT can have only one official owner at one time. And since they're minted and secured on the Ethereum blockchain, no one can modify the record of ownership, not even copy-paste it into a new one.

 

This means NFTs are not interchangeable and cannot be exchanged with other items. In contrast, fungible items, such as fiat currencies, can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties.

 
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Premier League

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Saturday, June 20 Watford v Leicester 3.30pm; Brighton v Arsenal 6pm; West Ham v Wolves 8.30pm; Bournemouth v Crystal Palace 10.45pm 

Sunday, June 21 Newcastle v Sheffield United 2pm; Aston Villa v Chelsea 7.30pm; Everton v Liverpool 10pm 

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Tuesday, June 23 Southampton v Arsenal 9pm; Tottenham v West Ham 11.15pm 

Wednesday, June 24 Manchester United v Sheffield United 9pm; Newcastle v Aston Villa 9pm; Norwich v Everton 9pm; Liverpool v Crystal Palace 11.15pm

Thursday, June 25 Burnley v Watford 9pm; Leicester v Brighton 9pm; Chelsea v Manchester City 11.15pm; Wolves v Bournemouth 11.15pm

Sunday June 28 Aston Villa vs Wolves 3pm; Watford vs Southampton 7.30pm 

Monday June 29 Crystal Palace vs Burnley 11pm

Tuesday June 30 Brighton vs Manchester United 9pm; Sheffield United vs Tottenham 11.15pm 

Wednesday July 1 Bournemouth vs Newcastle 9pm; Everton vs Leicester 9pm; West Ham vs Chelsea 11.15pm

Thursday July 2 Arsenal vs Norwich 9pm; Manchester City vs Liverpool 11.15pm

 

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Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

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How to wear a kandura

Dos

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  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
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  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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T20: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur

Test: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

Walls

Louis Tomlinson

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Nepotism is the name of the game

Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

PROFILE OF INVYGO

Started: 2018

Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo

Based: Dubai

Sector: Transport

Size: 9 employees

Investment: $1,275,000

Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
GAC GS8 Specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh149,900

Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations
Edited by Sarah Cleave, Comma Press

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills