Fame, fortune and fashion: inside the Elie Saab story

The first rule before interviewing Elie Saab is not to get jealous. And this is no easy feat: he is super rich and super famous. Every supermodel wants to wear his clothes, every Hollywood A-lister wants to be his best pal, and the global fashion industry hangs on his every word. Wherever Saab goes, governments, multi-nationals and millions of women are all desperate to be part of the Elie Saab brand. Not bad for a kid who got bored of school and by the age eighteen was already making clothes for his pals on the back streets on Beirut.

“I am not only a fashion designer, I have the vision of an entrepreneur, a businessman,” says Saab.

He can say that again. Today, the 46-year-old runs a truly global empire, with boutiques in Paris, London and Dubai. His clothes are on sale in 22 countries, and he has moved into bags, shoes and jewellery. But that is just the start: in recent years, Saab has expanded into designing the interior for the BMW X Series, worked with MAC Cosmetics and signed a deal to design three mega yachts. Throw in TV commercials and even a reality show, few would argue that Saab has single-handedly created a brand worth $500m.

Little wonder he was ranked 28th in the recent Arabian Business Power List, and fifth on the global Arab Fame List.

“I don’t like the term 'power' per se. Power for me is the respect you have for yourself and for others and the esteem you get from people about your work. This satisfaction will give you all the power you need to grow and move ahead,” he says.

The Elie Saab story is as original as many of his designs. Born in Beirut to a wood merchant and housewife, his interest in dress making started when he was just nine years old. He says he spent much of his free time cutting patterns and drawing sketches for his sisters, using his mother’s tablecloths and curtains. The neighbours soon got wind of what he was up to, and by the time he was a teenager he already had a small network of loyal clients. Looking back, he says: “I was born with this passion of creating and making dresses and was always surrounded by beautiful women, from sisters to neighbours, so the desire to dress them and make them look elegant was my constant inspiration.”

Despite initially studying fashion, he soon became bored, confident he was already a master in the art of dress making. In 1982, aged just eighteen, he opened his first couture atelier in Beirut with an incredible fifteen staff on the payroll.

Pretty quickly, Saab became the talk of the town, and just months after opening his business, made his first public presentation of his collection. So positive was the response, the Saab name had spread way beyond Beirut.

“I believe that creating your own identity is the first and most important thing to do. Perseverance, hard work and ambition are also very important to be able to overcome obstacles and succeed in the fashion field…I am passionate about my career. Of course a certain amount of talent was required, but even more of work, years of hard labour during which I had to teach myself most of the business,” he says.

But it wasn’t until 1997 that his big global break came, when he was invited to take part in the prestigious Camera Nazionale della Moda as the only non-Italian designer among an anthology of Italian designers. He showed off his couture collection in Rome for three consecutive years before he was invited in 2000 by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute to show his collection in Paris.

That, admits Saab, was the turning point. “My first international move, from Beirut to Rome, Italy; it was my first fashion show attended by the international press, clients and VIPs.”

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