How to bring an haute couture vision to the finest furnishings? Or better, how to bridge the gap between haute couture, architecture and furniture? Naturally, with the expertise of an interior design top player and the sensibility of an established fashion house. That was the chemistry the Corporate Brand Maison team felt when they signed the partnershipwith the couturier Elie Saab in his stunning Paris apartment.
After evolving his eponymous couture house into a lifestyle brand, creating a home collection was a natural next step for the Lebanese haute couture creative Elie Saab. That is why the brand chose Corporate Brand Maison as their partner.
“Corporate Brand Maison is perfectly geared toward supporting our ambitions in developing and creating timeless signature furniture collections and interior design projects that embody the DNA of our brand and touch every aspect of living,” Saab said in a statement announcing the launch of Elie Saab Maison. The line debuted in 2020 thanks to a long-term licensing agreement with Corporate Brand Group’s division specialising in brand extension projects in the furnishing and hospitality sectors, dedicated to prestigious international fashion and luxury brands.
Dunes Tables by Elie Saab Maison
Since then, Mr. Elie Saab has spread his wings beyond the clothing field by joining the ranks of a handful of couturiers who have ventured into luxury furniture design and of the few who have tried their hand at interior design for home and hospitality services. Even there, the fashion designer’s touch is recognisable, and today the brand finds its highest expression in haute couture creations and interiors, residences, and hospitality projects.
Elie Saab Maison, L’Infini by Carlo Colombo
The first Elie Saab Maison and Corporate Brand Maison showroom opened in the heart of Milan’s fashion district. And in the city, through a unique partnership between Elie Saab and Istituto Marangoni Design School, students from the Interior Contract Design Master’s Programme worked on a project for an Elie Saab residential complex in the Middle East. That concept achieved its goal under the mentorship of Carlo Colombo – architect and CEO, founder of Studio A++ and its division specialising in Branded real estate projects.
Thanks to these synergies, Corporate Brand Maison president Massimiliano Ferrari discussed with us how fashion designer Elie Saab expanded his design philosophy into interior spaces.
Corporate Brand Maison president Massimiliano Ferrari
Marcella Bricchi: How was the partnership with Elie Saab Maison born? What were the designer’s requests and expectations?
Massimiliano Ferrari: We have worked on Real Estate projects for several fashion and automotive brands. When we discovered that Elie Saab was looking for a strategic partner to create a Home collection, we applied as an “Outsider”, being more of an International architectural studio and Brand consultant expert. Yet we won the pitch among several companies presenting our vision and product guidelines. Creating a Home collection has become a natural step for this incredible Couture House. I believe they chose CB Maison as a partner able to expand the Brand’s Lifestyle and ambitions not only for the development of an Iconic Collection but also to support creating one-off interior design and residential real estate projects. We instantly clicked when we signed our partnership in Mr Saab’s beautiful Paris apartment. We understood that there could be perfect chemistry in product taste and in our commitment to co-create a signature Maison collection that fully embodied the Elie Saab brand DNA.
M.B.: How would you describe Elie Saab Maison’s design characteristics and distinctive elements in all his products?
M.F.: The designer’s mindset has been translated into the shapes and lines that define the Elie Saab Maison furniture collection by architect Carlo Colombo. The encounter between the two originated a compelling dialogue, resulting in unique objects reflecting the same elements that make an Elie Saab dress so memorable and immediately recognisable. The collection has been designed to do just that, to be different, to convey the strength of the values it embodies, Elie-Saab-style attention to detail and richness of materials. For the First Home Collection, we have blended the essence of the Elie Saab style with the Design and technical Savoir Faire of the Italian Furniture manufacturers, creating a modern baroque luxury line in which you can feel the Artisan Human Touch.
Elie Saab Maison, L’Infini by Carlo Colombo
M.B.: What is the brand’s red thread between fashion and design?
M.F.: The Elie Saab Maison collection depicts the perfect translation of the concept of Haute Couture that has always inspired the designer to create its collections as a series of furniture pieces that link together harmoniously. The line can be defined as a “total look” for every part of the house: from the living to the dining room, bedrooms, lighting and accessories. Consistent, inextricably linked to the brand DNA and the fashion created by Elie Saab over the years. Contemporary, but close to the designer’s most iconic sources of inspiration, the places and historical moments of his artistic career, from the scents of the Middle East to the Art Deco of his beloved Paris, and the 1960s and 70s, years of timeless, eternal icons, extraordinary for design and architecture.
Les Vagues residences by Elie Saab in Qetaifan Island North, Qatar
M.B.: The collaboration between Corporate Brand Maison and Istituto Marangoni in the Interior Contract Design Master’s educational project has been an excellent experience.
M.F.: Sure! From both a professional and a human point of view. We have already been doing several ES Real estate residential projects, from large beachfront Towers to Luxury Villa Compounds, working on the brand’s stylistic codes and DNA, which have been very successful from the beginning. But at the same time, we became a little too repetitive, and we felt the need to look at a different take on the brand, always staying loyal to the DNA and stylistic codes but more contemporary and “fresher “. All of this was under the master guidance of our art director Carlo and Istituto Marangoni teachers. The Interior Contract Design Master’s students have been excellent; they demonstrated incredible commitment and a deep understanding of the brand and the ES Maison Collection. They delivered a fresh new take on the brand, and we were so satisfied that we included two of them in our internship programme.
M.B.: What interested you about the creative and methodological approach of our Interior Contract Design Master’s students?
M.F.: We [Carlo and I] were very impressed by the level of the research done and the outstanding mood board presented by the group! Also, a well-thought-out distribution of spaces and circulations flows and environmental studies helped create a compelling concept.
Marcella Bricchi
Interior Design department programme leader, Milan