What is a star, but a mysterious and inaccessible planet, sometimes non-existent and whose distant light is still perceived, although long extinct. Constantly inspired by the great balls of the twentieth century, the insane festivities of the interwar years, the glamour of the Hollywood golden age and the dazzling career of Studio 54 in New York, Rani Zakhem celebrates the star for what it is: a scintillating accent on a silky night and the brilliant symbol of the eternal feminine.

Architect before being a haute couture designer, Rani Zakhem has rekindled his talents as a geometer in his new collection. The star which makes his drapes and petticoats sparkle, illuminates his silk sheath gowns and his intricate décolletés, responds to his need to sublimate the woman, to surround her with illusion. Under his fingers the star explodes, becomes a broken mirror, dazzling dust, a fluorescent cloud. Deconstructed, it bears no resemblance in any way to the five or seven branched banal figure that has represented it for centuries. It is atomized, enveloping, sprawling. Powerful and dynamic, it is fireworks, Big Bang, pyrotechnic cascade, liquid light.

And since this collection is pure light, all the colors of the prism appear alternately in silk organza, chiffon, tulle and precious satin organza dresses. Lilacs and cyclamen sheaths illuminated with splashes and silver splinters. Here, a waist is underlined by a trompe-l'œil belt embroidered with a motif that swarms from a central star. There, like a nod to Chinese astrology, a transparent sheath appears in glitter, in a Parma harmony, immemorial motives where one guesses stylized flames. Again, a nude tulle dress constellated with gold stars celebrates the discovery of a supernova or the conquest of the firmament. One will be dazzled by the complex perfection of the rectilinear

neckline of a red ox blood silk sheath with a myriad of silver crystals irradiating the neckline like an ultimate masterpiece.

The midday stars themselves, symbolizing the impossible, swarm on a yellow sunflower number draped in the purest Zakhem style. When you do not see stars, just take a closer look. On this black sheath, embroideries formed by obscure stars, gather like celestial lava. Elsewhere, iridescent crystals flow in imaginary comet rain colors. In this dazzling crescendo a pleated cocktail number slides through glorified with golden stars, worthy of Mozart's Queen of the night as of a disco icon of Studio 54. In tribute to the Art Deco period cherished by the creator, a black corolla dress as if soaked in golden dust accumulates randomly on the petticoat's bottom.

A precious, transparent and embroidered T-shirt top, coupled with a powdered gray satin sheath, which could magnify the most ordinary outfit, seduces us, leaving us head over heels.

The wedding dress, white as snow, the poetic highlight of this inspired collection seems crossed by a stellar storm. The sleeves in all their forms, especially bishop, introduce a sophisticated stylistic element to this celebration of light. Between Star Wars, the night of the Perseids, the volcanic eruption and the aurora borealis, Rani Zakhem takes on the challenge as in "Peau d'Ane " *  by carving his gowns in the substance of stars.

*Peau d'Âne is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault