Ziad Nakad’s L’Envol Couture Collection Takes Flight
- Emilie Harper
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Ziad Nakad’s L’Envol begins with a desire to escape. Not through fantasy, but through elevation. Named after the French word for “flight,” the Lebanese designer’s Fall-Winter 2026–2027 haute couture collection looks beyond the noise of the present toward something quieter, freer, and more enduring. Across 34 pieces, birds become symbols of departure and renewal, while gowns shaped by cascading layers, sculptural volume, and intricate embellishment appear suspended between earth and sky.
That tension defines the collection. There is softness, but never fragility; grandeur, but not heaviness. Nakad’s women are surrounded by fabric that billows, folds, and extends outward like wings, yet the strength of the construction remains visible beneath the romance. In the collection’s imagery, mirrored columns rise among rugged Lebanese rock formations, reflecting both the natural landscape and the gowns themselves. The effect is dreamlike, but grounded—an imagined world built within the designer’s homeland.
“L’Envol” translates to “flight.” What did that idea mean to you personally at this moment, and what kind of freedom or transformation did you want the collection to express?
Ziad Nakad: “For me, L’Envol is much more than the idea of flying. It represents the courage to rise above uncertainty, to leave behind the noise that surrounds us, and to reconnect with what truly matters.
“At this stage in my creative journey, I wanted to create a collection that speaks about hope, movement, and renewal.
“Fashion has the power to transform not only how a woman looks but also how she feels. With L’Envol, I imagined a woman who embraces her own strength while allowing herself to remain light, free, and authentic. Flight became a metaphor for personal growth—the confidence to move forward with elegance, regardless of the challenges along the way.”
That metaphor is embedded throughout the collection, sometimes literally and sometimes through movement alone. Bird-shaped embellishments appear to settle across bodices and skirts, while feathered cuffs, wing-like sleeves, sweeping capes, and pleated structures expand the body’s silhouette. Other gowns suggest flight through less direct means: a train caught in motion, fringe that responds to every step, or translucent layers that seem to float independently of the figure beneath them.
The opening looks establish an earthy foundation. Rose-gold, bronze, taupe, and muted brown connect the collection to the surrounding mountains, while intricate surface work gives each gown an almost geological richness. From there, the palette lifts into blush pink, sky blue, navy, silver, burgundy, violet, and white. The transition feels intentional, as though the collection is gradually moving from the ground upward—from rock and soil toward open air, reflected light, and clouds.
Yet even at its most ethereal, L’Envol is rooted in control. A gown may look as if it has been shaped by the wind, but its apparent effortlessness is the result of precise couture engineering.
The collection presents lightness and strength as complementary qualities. How did you translate that balance into the silhouettes, movement, and construction of the gowns?
Ziad Nakad: “I have always believed that true femininity lies in the coexistence of softness and strength. In L’Envol, I explored that dialogue through every silhouette. The flowing layers create a sense of movement, almost as if the dresses are carried by the wind, while the couture construction gives each piece its structure and precision.
“The balance comes from the craftsmanship. Even the lightest fabrics require meticulous engineering to achieve that effortless effect. I wanted every gown to appear weightless while remaining technically sophisticated, allowing the woman to feel both graceful and empowered.”
This dialogue between delicacy and discipline is perhaps clearest in Nakad’s treatment of volume. Dramatic skirts and trains are balanced by tightly defined waists, while fitted mermaid silhouettes open into feathered hems, sheer panels, or elongated drapery. Pleated sleeves radiate from the arms like wings, and sharply constructed shoulders lend authority to otherwise fluid gowns. The body is never lost beneath the ornamentation; instead, the embellishment follows, frames, and amplifies it.
The materials deepen that contrast. Velvet brings richness and weight, while crystal, tulle, and translucent fabrics create luminosity. Leather introduces a sharper contemporary edge. Specially designed Swarovski stones scatter light across the surfaces of the gowns, helping even the most densely embroidered pieces retain a sense of air and motion.
The collection’s setting is equally important to its meaning. Rather than presenting L’Envol in a neutral studio or an imagined foreign landscape, Nakad returned to Lebanon.
Photographed high in the mountains, the collection places couture against ancient rock, open skies, and expansive natural forms. The location is not merely scenic. It gives the idea of flight as a point of origin.
You chose the Lebanese mountains as the setting for the collection, connecting the landscape with resilience, serenity, and a return to one’s roots. Why was it important for this story to be told in Lebanon?
Ziad Nakad: “Lebanon will always be my greatest source of inspiration. Its beauty, its history, and above all its resilience continue to shape the way I see the world. The mountains carry a quiet strength—they have witnessed so much, yet they remain timeless and majestic.
“Photographing L’Envol there was my way of paying tribute to my homeland. The landscape naturally reflects the spirit of the collection: freedom, elevation, and inner peace. I also wanted to remind people that Lebanon remains a place of extraordinary beauty and creativity. Sharing that message with an international audience felt deeply meaningful.”
Against the steadfastness of the mountains, the gowns appear even more animated. Fabric trails across mirrored surfaces; reflections multiply silhouettes; mist gathers between the models and the rock formations. The contrast allows the imagery to hold two ideas at once: permanence and possibility. Lebanon represents the roots from which the collection rises, while the birds, open skies, and mirrored portals suggest movement beyond the visible landscape.
This sense of possibility also shapes Nakad’s decorative language. The collection does not rely on a single recurring motif. Instead, the sensation of flight is interpreted through layers, light, embroidery, fringe, feathers, sculptural folds, and the changing relationship between a garment and the body wearing it.
Bird motifs, layered fabrics, velvet, leather, crystals, and specially designed Swarovski stones all appear throughout the collection. Which techniques or details best capture the feeling of flight for you, and which proved most challenging to realize?
Ziad Nakad: “The layered fabrics probably express the idea of flight most clearly because they create movement with every step, making the gowns feel almost alive. The embroidered bird motifs reinforce that symbolism, while the specially designed Swarovski stones add light in a way that resembles reflections in the sky.
“The greatest challenge was achieving a sense of effortless lightness while working with couture techniques that are incredibly precise and time-consuming. Every embroidery, every layer, and every embellishment had to contribute to the illusion of movement without overwhelming the silhouette. That balance between complexity and simplicity is one of the most rewarding aspects of couture.”
The result is a collection in which complexity is rarely announced as labor. Thousands of individual details disappear into a larger visual impression: a wing opening, light moving over water, or a bird passing through the sky. Even the collection’s more architectural looks maintain this sense of momentum. A gold corseted gown expands into sweeping sculptural tiers, a silver design frames the shoulders with angular crystal work, and a black column gown narrows the body beneath intricately embellished sleeves. Each offers a different interpretation of strength, from theatrical volume to controlled restraint.
As L’Envol approaches its conclusion, the palette becomes increasingly luminous. Silver, pearl, ivory, and white replace the deeper tones of the earlier looks. Embellishment remains present, but the emotional register softens. The final wedding gown is expansive in silhouette yet quiet in spirit, its full tulle skirt and delicately decorated bodice forming a traditional bridal image without interrupting the collection’s central ideas of movement, serenity, and renewal.
The collection concludes with a wedding gown defined by softness and restrained elegance. What does that final look represent within the larger journey of L’Envol, and what do you hope the woman wearing it feels?
Ziad Nakad: “For me, the bridal gown represents the final destination of the journey. After movement, discovery, and transformation comes a sense of peace and fulfillment. I deliberately chose a softer, more understated expression of elegance because confidence doesn’t always need excess—it can be found in simplicity.
“I hope the woman who wears this gown feels free, serene, and completely herself. More than anything, I want her to feel that she is stepping into a new chapter with grace, strength, and optimism. That is the true spirit of L’Envol.”
In that final image, flight no longer represents escape. It becomes arrival. The collection begins with the courage to rise above uncertainty and ends with the confidence to stand in stillness, transformed but entirely oneself.
For Nakad, freedom is not the absence of structure, history, or roots. It is what becomes possible because of them. L’Envol finds its lightness through craftsmanship, its modernity through tradition, and its sense of elevation within the enduring landscape of Lebanon. Each gown carries the suggestion of wings, but the collection’s most powerful ascent is internal: the movement from uncertainty toward hope, from noise toward serenity, and from transformation toward a renewed sense of self.
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