Georges Hobeika delivers a breathtaking FW25 collection filled with femininity, timeless glamour, and sophisticated craftsmanship.
By Jesse Scott
It's been barely a month since Georges and Jad Hobeika launched a breathtaking and impressively expansive couture collection - made even more remarkable by the fact that it was curated in the wake of a family tragedy. But the father-son team has no intention of slowing down. The Hobeikas stole the Saturday night spotlight at Paris Women's Fashion Week, releasing one of the most stellar collections of the season. An A-list of celebrities and fashion luminaries, including Mara Lafontan, Chloe Lecareux, and Leonie Hanne, was dazzled with a series of silhouettes that both captured the season's most iconic trends and pushed fashion forward into a new age of bold femininity. This was a high-octane show reminiscent of the supermodel-heavy spectacles of the late 90s and early 2000s; an exceptional cast of models strutted down the runway as if propelled from a cannon. The sharp and dramatically cut silhouettes, an explosion of luxurious fabrics in vibrant colors, matched the energy. The Hobeikas encapsulated timeless glamour and sophisticated sex appeal through meticulous design. Like Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli, they are elevating their ready-to-wear through craftsmanship and expertise typically only found in couture.
Power Looks for the Contemporary Woman
The entire collection exuded feminine power. Fur, leather, and silk audaciously danced together in versatile looks that simultaneously seduced and asserted complete control over one's destiny. The deft use of fur on widely varying pieces was particularly ingenious. A completely sheer black floor-length dress, with a low scoop-back and generous fur trimmings on the bottom cuff and shoulder sash, is indisputably one of the sexiest pieces of this season (Look 6). It was immediately followed by a far more chaste tan coat lent an aristocratic grace by a fur collar and irresistible whimsy by sumptuous fur shoes (Look 7). Fur formed an inverted tail on the front of a dreamy ivory skirt (Look 9), a wide collar on a shades of green look memorable for its sleek contemporary tailoring (Look 54), a riff on the Victorian ruffle (Look 52), and an oversized lapel on an elegant tan leather trench (Look 35). Simple yet original - and exquisitely executed - these details can be expected to inspire trends throughout the coming season.
The Hobeikas demonstrated a remarkable ability to maintain a cohesive sartorial narrative across a vast breadth of textiles. Sheer, jewel-frosted and proposed in rich colors like emerald green, provided some of the collection's most showstopping looks (Look 74). A structured black leather dress was made flirtatious by flapper-style fringe. The spirit of the roaring twenties was also captured by an hourglass black dress outlined with undulating trails of hundreds of pearls (Look 15). And a cropped leather python print jacket (of course with a fur collar) fused urban swagger with fairy like aesthetics when paired with a sheer pearl and gem-encrusted skirt. This all was testament to the tremendous versatility of modern femininity. In the show notes, we were told that the Hobeika woman inhabits a "city alive with movement and possibility" and "knows that every moment holds the promise of something extraordinary." With a Hobeika wardrobe, one truly can be ready for anything - and do it all with a distinctive and glamorous savoir faire.
A Streamlined and Successful Foray into Menswear
The Hobeika aesthetic is not exclusive to femininity. Several menswear looks were interspersed on the runway this season, all discerningly chosen. A form-fitting crop top with high-waisted pants and an oversized pearl necklace (an increasingly popular wardrobe staple for men) was a signature look (Look 3). My personal favorite ensemble was an oversized camel suit (the pants asymmetrically pleated) paired with a high-waisted belt and a dramatic fur collar (Look 11). And an elegant olive suit, the jacket cinched by a high-waisted belt rather than a button closure for a sleek, fluid appearance, introduced a new masculine silhouette into our modern tailoring vocabulary.
Royal Finale for a Stellar Collection
The Hobeikas saved their most swoon-worthy looks for last this season, as a series of diverse crimson silhouettes, with accents of royal violet, synthesized the major themes of the collection. A slinky dress symbolized a timeless feminine ideal, while a deadly python-style corset, irreverently paired with a floral-patterned skirt, offered a sexy contemporary sensibility (Looks 57, 59). The python style returned for a tiny bralet/pants set that epitomizes the urban cool girl. (Look 60) But its most spectacular use was on a cropped leather jacket with a violet fur collar (Look 61). Conversing with an equally memorable purple fur crop top from earlier in the show (Look 47), it was for the powerful woman who accepts nothing less than the best and is inevitably the hero in her own narrative.
Georges Hobeika FW25 transcended the realm of ready-to-wear. While expansive, it was simply stellar from first look to grand finale. Furthermore, it distilled the achingly glamorous soul of our current fashion flashpoint as poignantly as any collection to grace the runway this season (I encourage readers to compare these looks with those of Haider Ackermann's already-legendary Tom Ford debut). As much a triumph for the Hobeikas as January's couture offering, this was one of the most unforgettable shows of Paris Fashion Week.