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Arts & Culture Pages 4-5
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Sports
Travel
WEEKEND
A weekly supplement by
April 19-20, 2014
Designing on
Rami Kadi’s schedule
By Beckie Strum
The Daily Star
D
UBAI: More than
1,700 guests crowded the doors at Rami
Kadi’s runway show.
They pushed inside, stood on
the back bleachers and packed
into the stairways until ushers
had to close the doors on 300
more hopefuls who just
wouldn’t fit.
Kadi, a Lebanese designer known for his couturestyle gowns, held one of
the most anticipated
events at Fashion Forward. When it was over,
the designer’s connected
fans caused another
traffic jam online as
their photos overloaded Kadi’s social
media accounts.
“My Twitter is
blocked and my
Instagram is blocked.
It can’t refresh,” he
said. Most of the
designers who had
already shown that
weekend looked a little
delirious after coming
down from the preshow adrenaline rush. But Kadi and his
team looked particularly haggard, and his assistant
explained that buyers had been
calling late into the night.
Kadi, 27, has already established a clientele of local A-listers, loyal followers such as
Lebanese singer Myriam Fares
and Arab pop star Nancy
Ajram. And though most of the
young designers at Fashion
Forward put forward
accessible ready-towear collections
full of crop
tops
and
cocktail dresses, Kadi focused on
the kind of sparkling red carpet
gowns for which Lebanese fashion
designers are known.
The collection of pretty princess
dresses was complemented by an
animated video introduction, which
told the story of a sleeping princess
who awoke in 2014 in a palace full
of beautiful things – presumably his
collection of dresses – and was overwhelmed by her options as she
began to get ready for her first night
out. Cue bass and models.
The collection featured a range
of full-length, highly adorned
gowns in slim-fit shapes as well as
plenty of A-frames with full petticoats. Volume was a major feature,
so much so that more than a few
models, wading through layers and
layers of tulle, struggled to get
down the runway.
With the bulk of his sales coming from one-off dresses, Kadi has
been free from the seasonal grind of
the international fashion schedule.
He sells exclusively out of his own
store in Ras Beirut and designs to
the beat of his own sewing
machine, a luxury that might
change as the designer sets his
sights on Europe.
Before a much-needed afternoon
nap, Kadi spoke to The Daily Star
about his new collection, the freedom of designing made-to-order
gowns and plans for a Paris debut.
TDS: Tell us about the inspiration behind the new collection?
R.K.: I wanted to create a story
behind a sleeping beauty when she
wakes up in 2014. The theme was
the enchanted kingdom. We did a
mixture of royalty and modernity, so you have these
big royal gowns
with new colors, like we
didn’t have
lots of
gold. The baroque we had but more
pastel, more modern. Even all the
embroidery, when you look at
them, they all have this baroque
aspect but they’re made with new
[styles] with silk threads, with
white colors and pastel colors.
TDS: I remember a gown made
from periwinkle brocade fabric.
R.K.: We worked a lot on the
fabrics made exclusively for us, all
of the printed or new fabrics. All of
the fabrics that were really nice, if
you want. We have lots [made] in
Paris, in London, in Switzerland,
Italy and France. But all the
embroidery and material work are
done in our workshop.
TDS: I like checking your Facebook to see which stars you’ve
dressed. Name some of your most
recent Lebanese celebrities.
R.K.: I’m working a lot with
Myriam [Fares] now. I have Nancy
Ajram, Mona Abou Hamze, Dima
Saade. These are the most recent
ones. Most of my clients are based
in the Gulf. We have a lot of clients
from Qatar, from Saudi Arabia,
from Kuwait and from the UAE.
And now we have lots of customers
from Russia.
TDS: I want to talk a bit about
this idea of working exclusively in
couture. Do you work on a seasonal schedule?
R.K.: We do seasonal collections, but they’re not launched in a
specific timeframe because for now
we don’t do Paris Fashion Week, so
I can do it whenever I want to. But
I think for the next season, if we’re
going to do Paris Fashion Week,
we’re going to have to stick
to the dates.
TDS:
Really,
you’re thinking
of doing Paris?
R.K.: Yes for the couture [week
in July] – a presentation not a
show, of course. You should start
step by step.
TDS: What’s the longest time
you’ve ever spent on a dress?
R.K.: Maybe like six months; six
months working 24 hours on a
dress. That was a dress made of 24
karat gold lace and it was all cut
with silk Mikado. It was a huge
[wedding] dress
that she
[the
bride]
took many pieces [off] and changed
it a lot. It had two veils.
TDS: Until now, have you liked
having that freedom to produce on
your own schedule?
R.K.: This is why we have VVIP
clients, and I do big weddings and
big events because it’s more personal, and the client knows this is
a unique piece made just for her.
There are lots of designers who are
doing [ready-to-wear], and they’re
doing well. But since I do evening
gowns, and since I was a little
child I liked fancy pieces,
this is a dream come true
for me.