A SHEER DESIRE by zuhair murad | Paris Haute Couture Week ss26 | Jan 2026
A SHEER DESIRE
Paris Haute Couture
jul 2025
In a luminous tribute to Hollywood's golden age, Zuhair Murad reimagines the fate of cinema's most iconic heroines for his Fall-Winter 2025 couture collection. Drawing inspiration from the 1930s and '40s—the era of Barbara Stanwyck and Rita Hayworth—the couturier refuses the tragic endings that patriarchal narratives imposed on these radiant women. Where cinema once dimmed their light, Murad restores their power, crafting an alternative story where they rise rather than fall, reign rather than surrender.
The collection speaks in a winter palette of warm browns, velvety beiges, enchanting blacks, and ivories kissed with gold, punctuated by fiery blushes and plays of shadow and light. Sharp tailoring sculpts embroidered jackets into armor, while bias-cut gowns flow like dreams. Velvet converses with tulle, transparency embraces structure, and ethical fur gleams with embroidered opulence. Embroidery—the house's beating heart—reaches baroque heights through bold pearls, cabochons, and damask patterns that echo old Hollywood's grandeur. This is a wardrobe of reinvention, honoring costume design legends like Edith Head while writing a new ending. Murad's muse does not fade into darkness—she moves forward, radiant and sovereign, choosing her own exit toward the light.