H&M has announced ELIE SAAB as its next designer collaborator, bringing one of the Middle East’s most internationally recognised fashion houses into the Swedish retailer’s long-running series of designer partnerships.
For ELIE SAAB, the collaboration marks another chapter in a story that began in Beirut and grew into one of fashion’s most recognisable expressions of glamour. Founded by Elie Saab in the Lebanese capital, the house first gained attention for its refined bridal creations before expanding onto the international stage.
Saab would go on to become one of the first international members of France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, cementing his position within the highest level of Paris couture. In the decades since, his creations have become synonymous with major red-carpet moments, defined by intricate craftsmanship, embellishment and a particular vision of modern femininity.
Today, ELIE SAAB extends beyond haute couture into ready-to-wear and accessories, but the codes established by its founder remain central to the house.
Those codes will now be translated for H&M.
The ELIE SAAB H&M collection will span womenswear, menswear and accessories, including footwear, offering a complete wardrobe built around the maison’s signatures. Embellished gowns sit alongside shimmering separates and precisely cut tailoring, while fine lace, gradient sequins and signature monograms bring elements of the house’s couture vocabulary into the collaboration.
For H&M, the partnership is also a celebration of Saab’s journey from Beirut to Paris and the global fashion stage.
“We are thrilled to announce this landmark collaboration with ELIE SAAB,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M Creative Advisor and Head of Design Womenswear. “Mr Saab is a designer we have always respected. The journey from master of bridalwear in Beirut to the centre of Paris fashion is an amazing, rich story and we are so excited to be exploring his world.”
Johansson describes the upcoming collection as “magical, ornate and glamourous”, signalling that the collaboration will lean fully into the glamour for which ELIE SAAB has become known rather than stripping it back for the high street.
For Saab, accessibility sits at the heart of the project. The collaboration creates an opportunity for a much wider audience to enter the world he has developed over decades.
“This collection is created for all who admire the world of ELIE SAAB, and I hope it will be embraced with the same enthusiasm it was created with,” says the designer.
He describes the process with H&M as both collaborative and carefully considered, with each piece developed as part of a wardrobe designed for different moments in a woman’s life. “I am very happy with this collaboration and with the way we worked together with the H&M team to bring the collection to life,” he says. “It has been a truly collaborative and inspiring process.”
The partnership is significant beyond the clothes themselves. It places a house founded in Beirut at the centre of one of fashion’s most widely accessible designer collaborations, bringing a distinctly Lebanese couture story to a global high-street audience.
And for a maison built on fantasy, craftsmanship and dressing for memorable occasions, the promise is clear: ELIE SAAB glamour, opened up to a new audience.
The ELIE SAAB H&M collection launches on 22 October 2026 in selected stores across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt, as well as online.
For more stories of fashion from across the region and beyond, visit our dedicated archives and follow us on Instagram.
