At the source of the Georges Hobeika house was Marie, the couturier's mother.

"Marie the energy, Marie the wisdom," people would say. "Marie the transmission," should also be added.

A seamstress and embroiderer herself, Marie Hobeika gathered and supported her family, sharing with her son her deep love for fine work and her quest for excellence. As early as 1995, the year Georges Hobeika’s house was founded, she was already part of the team of specialized tailors. Georges was joined in 2022 by Jad, his son, who was appointed co-creative director of his eponymous house after completing his studies at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

For the beautiful season of 2025, father and son once again created a haute couture collection together. This collection is dedicated to Marie, who recently passed away. Jad, proud grandson of Marie, was as involved as his father in this filial tribute. There was something both eclectic and constant about this collection conceived around this central, kindly inspiring figure. Her "journey," to a beyond that does not prevent her presence, dictates forms and colors.

The four-handed collection sought its coherence without the obligation to justify the link between a rigid black crinoline adorned with a golden garland populated with birds, an ample emerald green silk tunic with a stylized peacock feather motif, a modest powder pink tailor suit with a short jacket, velvet collar and four buttons accompanying a long fluid tulle skirt edged with crystals, or a Klein blue dress with a round neck and three-quarter sleeves textured with a 3D floral repetition, or an opulent caraco in volumes of black feather loops surrounding a central golden brocade talisman. A surprise of this show, presented in January during Paris Fashion Week, is the pronounced presence of an entire men's collection.

Rigorous constructions and unusual combinations

If one recognized in this collection Georges Hobeika's tailoring vocabulary, with his romantic ribbons and, by contrast, those fabrics said to have structure permitting rigorous architectures, Jad's "signature" was equally present. The young creator, who has been visiting the workshop since age 16 and diving into the house archives for several years, has a precise idea of the aesthetic identity unique to Georges Hobeika.

From there, he combined his personal vision and his intuition of the zeitgeist. To Georges’ powdered palette and rigorous constructions, unusual black and gold combinations, the volumes of a stole jacket, or the whimsy of a kimono tunic with an oversized collar are added. Undoubtedly, Jad Hobeika proved himself to be the guardian of a temple whose future key he holds, pushing audacity further from his father's immutable foundations. The men's collection featured smoking jackets, an original model of this garment originally intended for smoking rooms, embroidered in 3D with an accumulation of glittery flowers, or adorned with a golden garland from which a leaf detaches to slide under the tie as a precious brooch. The men's palette ranged from black to gray with hints of plum. The pants are wide and fluid, exuding elegant nonchalance reminiscent of the chic pleats from the 1950s, subtle external signs of wealth given the yardage required at a time of post-World War restrictions.

'A soul wanders around the world'

This diversity that distinguished the Georges Hobeika spring-summer 2025 collection gives it a disparate aspect. This was explained by the theme guiding this line, which is Marie's "journey" to the other side of life, as a mother, grandmother, educator, and now muse to two generations of creators. How else to justify these flowers from artificial paradises, these birds flying from one dress to another, from jacket to coat? It was Marie who whisperd through the wind blowing in their wings, giving fragrance to mineral blooms, or light to the gold thread running through the spring branches.

"A soul wanders around the world, suspended on the echoes of its bereaved loved ones. Slowly, fear and doubts dissipate, a suspended path awakens, to the gates of heaven spelling its name.

Heavenly creatures sing, soar, parade in harmony,

The invisible threads of untangled destinies.

The soul rises still, towards pure, ultimate light, joins eternity, embraces supreme peace," read the manifesto's preface.

Only poetry, as if called for help, can express what technical words are incapable of conveying.

"The collection reflects how death represents a journey, a celebration of those who have impacted us so much they remain always by our side," explained the father-son duo. Suddenly, we noticed that the male models are parading with prayer beads matching their outfits. Suddenly, we understood there is something deliberately angelic in the unusual transparencies, the celestial palette of a dawn or dusk, the velvet of night, and the glimmers of day. It was both touching and fascinating to discover the result of this four-handed work by two generations, completed under the weight of grief but lightened by the tender gaze of a mother and grandmother who breathed an enormous burst of love into the collection. Perfection here was fidelity to memory.

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.