Zuhair Murad tends to go for sweeping themes, but with a resort collection called “Aqua Sculptura” he homed in on a very specific inspiration: the work of the late photographer Lucien Clergue. A friend of Picasso and Cocteau, Clergue was best known for his artful nudes of women in the Camargue and elsewhere along the Mediterranean coast.
Starting with the principle that the womanly form is a sculpture in perpetual motion, the designer likewise sought to blur the lines between the body and nature, the sea in particular.
The collection included highly literal interpretations like clamshells rendered on hourglass dresses both short and long, or a bralette and matching pants done in a sequined fish-scale motif on illusion tulle. But it was the subtler approaches that yielded more poetic results.
Standouts included a dress and a trench in silver jacquard that nicely evoked eddying water, a deep blue evening gown with symmetrical pinched pleating, and other elaborate embellishments recalling textures left behind by the tides. Breezy, iridescent pleats shimmered from seafoam to deep blue on one dress that looked both elevated and comfortable.
Murad also gamely dived into prints—not his usual habitat—and came up with a few options that mimicked mother-of-pearl or even a clownfish motif; elsewhere, gold lamé was worked in sunset hues. Amid the lavish handiwork, some pieces stood out for their simple purity of line: a sand-colored shift, shorter with a curved hem in front and a panel trailing behind, a black bustier gown, a white trench. In a robust lineup of more than 90 pieces, some caught the eye because they looked like something Grace Kelly might have worn in her prime. Those could very well anchor a wardrobe for years to come.
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