Rani Zakhem Couture, Autumn Winter 2018-2019: A warrior goddess

Because women of today need to assert herself in the face of challenges.  While the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s position is under threat due to  discord in her cabinet against her Brexit plan, the #MeToo campaign drives focus on the perils of abused women.

Now the Rani Zakhem Couture Autumn Winter 2018-2019 collection presented earlier this month in Paris is a vibrant and sparkling tribute to the combating and combative woman, entitled  Amazone of all jungles and  terribly ”Glamazonian”, she is portrayed like a warrior goddess: a strong silhouette for an empowered woman.

A large part of this collection features gowns in an explosion of white, a value rather than a colour, considered fragile but luminous, bold, a symbol of renewal and resilience, with military reference and camouflage-inspired detailing and motifs.  The recurring military insignia adorn the sleeves of a jacket or coat as giant gold glittering embroidered chevrons.  The new Amazone puts on a appearance of strength and invulnerability, as if ready for combats on all front.  

The collection includes glamorous gowns and dresses in silver, red, black and gold, decorated ornate motifs; glittering emerald, bronze and gold on a pencil skirt; red, black and gold crystals in clusters on an incendiary sheath or on sleeves, or in a single element, gold, iridescent crystal and silver, wrapping the waist of a white silk crepe cocktail dress vertiginously slit on the bias.   Elsewhere, we find the motif in an almost crude state, treated in a falsely literal way, as a serigraph in shades of khaki on a precious silk crepe sablé, for an ultra-feminine  “V” neck spencer jacket with structured shoulders, and sharp cigarette pants.

 

Rani Zakhem’s  "glamazone" is also marked with the seal of the forests translated, here in diaphanous sheaths where intertwined cascades of lianas drawn by the designer and hand embroidered with sequins and white, bronze, silver and gold braided threads. On the skirt of a tulle dress with crinoline all the poetry of an imaginary jungle unfolds, a fairy where fauna and flora blend in a palette of sky blue, pale pink, gold and copper, punctuated here and there by a flight of black birds.

The strapless corset draped in nude tulle, joins the skirt by a movement of ruffled tulle. In this celebration of nature there is also a spectacular crinoline creation, fluttering black tulle, with scattering of crystals, evoking a spider in its precious cobweb. Dragonflies flutter over pastel hues of aquatic vegetation on an exquisite revealing ballgown . as well as an adorable sheath in tulle cascades, nuanced from orange to pink, like a poisonous flower or panoply of native warriors.

Subtle references from Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan and Azzedine Alaïa punctuate the couture vocabulary of Rani Zakhem.