Rabih Kairouzi: “The shapes in my clothes are Parisian, the colors are Mediterranean”

Rabih Kairouz is one of the rare couturiers who has stayed true to his vow of vigilance during the Covid-19 pandemic: he has stopped showing, but still presents two annual women’s ready-to-wear collections. By appointment, in his Parisian workshop on the Left Bank. An old theater with large windows, hidden in an inner courtyard that also serves as a shop.

On this day in March 2024, there we meet customers who have come to try on the autumn-winter 2024-2025 dresses and jackets that color the racks with aubergine, royal blue or electric pink intensity. The existence of these buyers does not prevent the Lebanese-born fifty-year-old from responding to an interview or demonstrating the practicality of his creations: “It’s silk taffeta, ultralight, wrinkle-resistant; It folds like a K-Way »She explains, taking an orange evening dress from the hanger and rolling it into a ball. Since 1999, Rabih Kairouz has followed the path of sophisticated aesthetics, with geometric, practical and light forms that seem to escape gravity.

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of his home and also the anniversary of his return to business. In the summer of 2020, the designer, who was injured in the head during an explosion in the port of Beirut, was recovering for a long time; His workshop, destroyed, was rebuilt in another building in the Lebanese capital, which he opened in March. “It was the first event we’ve had there in five years, it woke me up”, breathes the designer, who is still the majority shareholder of his brand, but brought in financial partners in 2016 and 2017 to support its development at its own pace. After opening a store in London in 2020, it is considering a new address in Paris.

You have always lived and worked between Paris and Beirut. How did that affect the way you think about clothes?

When I started in Lebanon, I only made evening and wedding dresses. Although they were clean, they lacked urban inspiration. When I moved to Paris in 2009, I was obsessed with the idea of ​​making clothes for the city, for the street. I imagined a split ditch [devenu un classique de la marque] Because I saw a woman embarrassed by her jacket as she ran to catch the bus. However, when I’m only in Paris, I miss Lebanon: the light, the closeness to nature… I had the chance to always live between two countries, and this is also felt in my clothes: the shapes are Parisian, Mediterranean colors.