The collections of the Lebanese fashion designer Milia Maroun are full of freshness and vivacity, dynamic and romantic at the same time, and despite their modernity always include oriental aspects without appearing to stem from an Arabian Nights tale. At first glance, milia m's models appear simple in terms of materials and cuts. On closer inspection, however, they reveal subtle stripping and dressing tricks and surprising 'insights' through folds and slits. The designer prefers elastic, softly flowing materials which model the body while giving the wearer complete freedom of movement. She combines fabrics of different qualities, including diaphanous or see-through materials, mostly in muted colours. With her reduction of shapes and colours, the designer reveals her love of Japanese fashion design and appreciation of its subtlety regarding the femininity and individuality of women.
Milia Maroun, born in Beirut in 1971, studied fashion design at the ESMOD in Paris and then worked as a trainee in a number of fashion houses, among others Albani Couture, Pierre Cardin, Jamin Puech Accessoires, and Stylmod Variance (where she worked as a designer from 1992 to 1995). In 1999 she founded her label milia m in Beirut and showed her first summer collection. Her clothes are sold in select outlets in Paris, New York, London, Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo and other places.
