Elie Saab Resort 2025 Collection

Elie Saab’s resort collection lands amid a whirlwind: Last month, the designer unveiled a 26-look capsule of see-now-buy-now collaboration with the Istanbul-based retailer Ipekyol. He’s also moving ahead with a first branded residential tower in Abu Dhabi, putting the final touches on a couture collection for Paris, and preparing an “Elie’s World” extravaganza to be held in Riyadh this fall. Clearly, Saab and his studio love a challenge, or several.

Yet judging by this outing, all is cool, calm, and la dolce vita chez Saab. There’s a personal subtext to this collection’s infatuation with 1950s romance, the many splendors of Cinecittà, and the graceful statues in the Giardini di Villa Melzi. When the house first branched out from its home base in Beirut, Mr. Saab found a warm welcome in Italy.

Here, the designer blended his established signatures—well-defined cuts, a variety of volumes, the shimmy of tiered fringe, oodles of lace, embroidery, and floral macramé—with an expanded daywear offering, in line with his goal of “accompanying women from morning to night.” While many of these looks may be relaxed by Saab’s standards, they’re hardly “casual wear”: they’re more like reworked staples, moving from crisp flares, denims, and jumpsuits with ultra-feminine cuts to workwear shapes in noble materials and a breezy ensemble in white cotton poplin with an Italianate floral etched out in black and sky blue. The designer took a savvy approach to occasion wear: wedding guests will have plenty to choose from and wear on repeat, and there was even a number or two to suit the minimalist bride. A lineup of desert sunset hues—“garden lily pink,” “cappuccino,” and coppery rose—looked universally flattering, too.