One of Lebanon's top designers, Georges Hobeika, once abandoned his civil engineering career to pursue a career in design. Now his collections at Paris Fashion Week are eagerly awaited by fashionistas from all over the world, and his dresses are chosen by the stars of the first magnitude.

About fifteen years have passed since the first Georges Hobeika Couture collection was shown. Since then, the list of his achievements in the field of fashion has been growing every year.



Many designers say that they dreamed of fashion almost from infancy. George Hobeika took a different path, at first he acquired a completely different specialty - he graduated from a university with a degree in civil engineer and does not deny that architecture means a lot to him.

He even has completed projects. But how did he realize that there is something more attractive in creating clothes to decorate a woman than architecture turned out to be for him? An architect and a fashion designer - perhaps there is something in common in this.

Let's remember at least the words of the famous Spanish couturier Balenciagawho said: "A couturier should be an architect of a cut, an artist of color, a sculptor of form, ...".

However, what happens to us in childhood often leaves an indelible mark. Good taste and love for beautiful things in George was instilled by his mother, who had her own small atelier. So the future designer grew up among fabrics and patterns, luxurious outfits and, sometimes, capricious clients. He was always interested in watching his mother's work, and later he himself began to help her little by little.

After graduating from university, George, continuing to help his mother, began to draw sketches. And he decided that his further life would be associated with fashion. An internship in Paris helped him appreciate the art of haute couture. It was high fashion that made him want to open his own atelier.



The knowledge of architecture and the ability to work with drawings acquired during his studies proved to be very useful in his new choice. In 1994, Hobeika, taking his sketches, went to Paris. Georges was taken to practice at Chanel. Now he recalls his departure as a brave act. Here he had to learn the art of patience, to feel loneliness, but he did not run counter to his beliefs, and always retained his individuality. George saw his main goal as becoming a designer.

Soon George Hobeika returns to Beirut and continues to work with her mother. In his new models, he combined the sophistication and elegance of the French Fashion House and the luxury of the East, creating dresses from light flying silk with unusual color shades, virtuoso cut and rich decoration. First, all the main fashionistas found out about him Middle East, and then, since 2001, the entire fashion world, when he became a regular participant in Paris Fashion Week.





His bespoke wedding dresses reflect his own unique style. George claims that romantic lace and organza dresses are always in fashion. From collection to collection, he strives to make a woman beautiful, and Lebanon is the most ideal place for this. Indeed, today haute couture fashion has become more significant for oriental beauties.

The wives of Arab sheikhs are happy to wear luxurious dresses even under the veil, they gather at private ladies' tea parties to discuss and admire the latest design creations, while Europe discusses how to dress easier and cheaper to look better.

But a woman always remains a woman, therefore, each of us has a desire for beauty on a subconscious level, and therefore George Hobeika's dresses will make even European fashionistas sigh enthusiastically.



When creating each collection, the designer does not have a specific muse, sometimes he proceeds from certain feelings to which he devotes his collection, while taking into account different women. For example, exotic passion and delicate grace, the personification of which can be just a beautiful orchid flower, or even better, if some beautiful woman can become an orchid.

Some designers turn their eyes to the 20s or 40s, sometimes look into the distant past, comparing and linking the fashion of the past to modern fashion. George likes the fashion of today with his creative freedom, when there is a choice and his own creative imagination and philosophy.

In 2010, the Georges Hobeika showroom opened at the Parisian Rue Royale. The designer loves to work more in his native Beirut, but the energy that reigns in the Parisian showroom is no less significant for him, especially since the showroom was created for comfortable interaction with the press and the international fashion world.