ZUHAIR MURAD Spring-Summer 2013 Couture Show

"Golden Cage" Reminiscence of past splendors with overtones of spirituality. There are gold ornaments aged with time the patinated sumptuousness of sculpted bas-reliefs are presented as an echo to celestial frescoes, the disturbing song of angels, the virtuosity of trompe-l’œil vaults by Italian sculptor AntonioRaggi, bringing to mind the aesthetic and sensitive shock of Roman churches. Such are the aesthetics then there is the movement, the empathy of a woman in keeping with her time in this couture collection by Zuhair Murad. There is nothing backward-looking about these references, just the additional desirability of a piece embroidered with rooster feathers delicately painted by the LemariÈ workshops. Or the infinite sensuality of a dress that mixes the transparencies of tulle and the ornaments of feathers and shells, divine motifs that sparked the inspiration of baroque artists. As the silhouettes move forward, hand-embroideries created by the Vermont House and the Lesage House rival in opulence. Here, a dress cultivates anemones on its fragile tulle. Another reproduces the bas-reliefs and the marbles of a 17th-century nave. An almost ecclesiastic cape seems eaten up by the embroideries of small feathers. A mantilla discretely shines out from its delicately faded gold silk. Glacier blues washed-out greens, powdery salmons have infused this wardrobe beset by exalted femininity. The body necessarily exults in short dresses built in the corset spirit, telescoping delicate