Little girls like to make drawings of pretty ladies wearing pretty party dresses. But from a design point-of-view, this childish doodling is like attempting to master calculus before learning to count. Fancy dresses might appear to be simple confections of fabric and froo-froo; creating an actual garment that can withstand the physical demands of walking, dining, dancing and preening and also survive the scrutiny of critical glances is a challenge that requires maturity, talent and skill.
Thirty-year-old London-based Lebanese designer Karen Karam has those qualities in abundance. Providing the most pressurised of clientele - celebrities and socialites - with garments geared to the special stresses of a night out, she creates dresses that are festive and also fun. She uses drapery, strong colours, decorative adornments and asymmetry to create light, flexible and good-natured clothes that are always a touch irreverent without becoming inappropriate.
"I don't think that there is an age for my typical customers," Karam says. "I think it depends on the style of the dress more than anything. But generally I see my customer as a sophisticated woman who is trendy but not a fashion victim. She is quirky yet elegant. She is fun and outgoing. And most importantly, she is someone with a sense of humour. This is key to me because I couldn't survive a day without mine." Moreover, she explains, "I don't have one definition of femininity, for me Audrey Hepburn and Georgia May Jagger are both feminine although they are very different in their looks. For me femininity is just a state of mind."
States of mind are familiar territory to Karam, who began her studies by earning a degree in psychology at the American University of Beirut. She followed up this incongruous fashion training by applying to Central Saint Martins, London's most prestigious design program whose graduates include Stella McCartney and Paul Smith. "To be quite honest," she confides, "I don't think it helps me in my designing but it does help me on my business side when I am both working and meeting different people from different sides of the business from seamstresses to press to manufacturers." During her time at Central Saint Martins, she trained at London's Alexander McQueen atelier before moving on to Chloe in Paris and finishing her placement year at John Galliano's studio, working on the ready-to-wear and catwalk collections. That year served as a foundation for her post-graduate understanding of fashion. "That was probably one of the best years of my life," she says, "it was amazing to be surrounded by so much talent. The degree of creativity was overwhelming at times. I felt like Alice in Wonderland." This air of adventure has stuck with her and is evident in her current lines.
For her final school project in 2006, Karam presented a collection as part of the Central Saint Martins showcase during London Fashion Week. Her work stood out among the other graduates' offerings due to its buoyancy and charm. Leading on-line fashion commentator Dazed Digital applauded, "Karen Karam's collection promotes Lebanese design as sexy and progressively radical."
On the strength of such critical recognition, she won the Mulberry Bag Award Competition and became a finalist for Mango's Young Designer of the Year Award and debuted her collection in Spring / Summer 09. She now sells her line through Internet shops, has accessories on offer at Collette in Paris and presents her line in its entirety exclusively through Dubai's prestigious Boutique 1.
"I think people are responding very well to my label as it gets sold out every season," Karam says with justifiable pride. "They are easy to wear dresses but also are statement pieces. I don't think you can walk into a place with one of my dresses without getting noticed."
Among those who agree and are grateful for her statement-making style are stars such as Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Branson and Lilly Allen. The vermillion floor-length gown with asymmetrical straps, which Imbruglia wore to the Serpentine Gallery's 2009 summer party earned the singer a "best dressed" nod by The Observer. The complex folded black cocktail length dress the singer wore to last year's Brit Awards placed her in the "best dressed" rankings of both Elle.com and Grazia. Karam believes that her clothes work well on the red carpet because, "My dresses are all statement pieces." Yet they have also been featured in British Vogue, Harper's Bazaar UK, In Style and a range of mass-market tabloids and women's magazines.
Despite Karam's successes in the Western market, she is still strongly attuned to the particular needs and interests of her Middle Eastern customers. "I think a big part of why my clothes work well for a Dubai market is that my dresses are semi-couture dresses." Karam affirms. "All the fine details of draping are very much a part of the Middle Eastern aesthetic of clothing. Middle Eastern women are very much into couture and detailing and colour and my dresses are all about that. I think that is why my dresses sell well in the Middle East." It seems that ladies everywhere want to revive the girl in them who dreams of glorious gowns, while hoping that a grown-up designer will turn those dreams into actual night-time clothing. Lucky for them, Karam is turning girly fantasy into gorgeous red-carpet-ready reality.
Karam’s lines are available online through www.boutique1.com.
