Rani Zakhem e his love for Lola

Rani Zakhem came to Rome with an unexpected incipit. A white dress, or better, a plywood white tulle gown – thick and worked as if they were feathers – and a bodice entirely embroidered by bright shades of gold. This is what Rani Zakhem has showed, at the opening of his show for Altaroma, when music and lights started. He says it‘s a tribute to the iconic actress of the 20’s, Marlene Dietrich who became a tribute to the idea of an elegant and sophisticated femme fatale, that the Lebanese designer likes to bring on the catwalk.

Rani Zakhem can be considered Elie Saab’s brother

For Lola the love of Lola – Lola and for the one of all feminine and sensual women, Saturday the 11st of July, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Altamoda was under the spot. In an increasingly fast fashion system, you have to try to tell a story that forces people to slow down the rhythm, that makes us think that dream and imagine could still be a different scenario. Rani Zakhem does it, focusing on the desire for glamor and beauty that today, as in the 20s, can illuminate dark times. In some ways considered the  Elie Saab‘s “brother”, the designer is cultured and refined and surprised us in every entry.

From pleated fabric that showed their best in the sensual draping that couldn’t stop moving, caressing, wrapping and discovering – at times – the woman who wears them. To dresses with unique shades, such as beige that becomes gold, when the sand takes the color of the sun at sunset close to the seashore. The light allows the sheath dresses with lurex shine, the gray becoming cascades of silver and black clothes, lose that serious and austere character,and become a symbol of class and elegance. Difficult to capture the essence of these outfits in a single shot. One point of view is not able to return the idea of fluid movement suggested by the different texture of fabrics, from tailoring and overlapping layers of chiffon, cloaks in silk and lace appliques.

The Rani’s woman is elusive, but becomes a sweet Princess, chaste and pure, that shines with its own light, in his idea of the Bride. And as if by magic, a white dress entirely decorated brings us to the end of the journey, leaving us in the eye magic that we often forget to look.