For spring, Zuhair Murad moved cross-country from Los Angeles to Miami, that other coastal hotspot of eternal summer and nonstop socializing.
In keeping with current trends both sartorial and meteorological, he kept things light, ethereal and revealing, with plunging necklines and strategic cut-outs anchored by bejeweled palm tree brooches. Seventies and Pop influences informed ensembles like a mint green sequined dress with flowers and matching cape, sparkly caftans, and fuchsia or shamrock green shift dresses with lace-up details. English lace was worked both saucy (in a corseted bustier) and sweet. Summer knits like a white tube dress, long dresses in daisy chain macramé, and a chiffon gown in blue-to-green dégradé channeled sultry nights by the sea.
Since he’s toying with Americana, Murad included denim, treated in a dark wash and lavished with appliqués of abstracted crystal flowers on a bustier dress, pants, and jacket. Here and elsewhere, his embellishments showed relative restraint, for example on a black halter-neck gown with a splay of colorful bird’s tongue sequins on the bodice. But the designer also seemed to be having fun playing on classic Parisian tropes, notably those of the Rue Cambon, with a ladylike black dress or suiting in summer-weight cotton tweed trimmed with lashings of pearls and bowed ribbons.
Red carpet dressing is a Murad stock-in-trade. This season there were plenty of contenders, among them a column dress fully embroidered with mirror sequins and crystals, a red number complete with gloves, and looks in burnished gold that evoked both old Hollywood and its most famous statuette.
Murad is in an enviable position: his ladies will follow him anywhere. He’s an inveterate traveler with much to say. Now seems as good a time as any to strike out for someplace new.