Haute Couture Rises From Rubble of Lebanon Hotel

Amid the charred ruins of this city’s most famous prewar hotel, the sights and sounds of a contemporary fashion show were a reminder of better times.

Lebanese designer Loulwa Abdel Baki chose the devastated St. Georges Hotel to present her newest line last week. At the height of Lebanon’s civil war, battles raged from one luxury hotel to another--and the conflict took its toll on the St. Georges, where 3-foot-tall candles lit graffiti-covered walls and the fire-blackened ceiling during the fashion show, and broken masonry served as candlesticks.

Strange place for a fashion show? No, just creative, guests agreed.

Invitations to the 40-minute show were sent to 450 people, but 600 curious, enthusiastic fashion devotees showed up.

Photographers and journalists jammed what had once been the hotel lobby. Rock music at maxi-decibels accompanied the miniskirted models. One could only hope that the pounding beat would not bring down the building--which has been declared unsound by engineers.

“We worked for four days clearing the place of rubble,” said Mona Labban, show manager and choreographer. “And, yes, we did chase out some rats.”

But enough war scars were left to remind and reprimand. “All these years,” said one woman, gazing around her at the sight. “Look at what we have lost.”

But the juxtaposition of war and peace, and piece after piece of fashion, was lost on no one.

“The Lebanese have never stopped having the best things,” said one Christian woman who was attending with her Muslim daughter-in-law.

Lighting and power for the sound system came from a generator at the adjacent pool area, which reopened some years ago. One deeply tanned member of the audience, Betty Nassar, said she had just come from water-skiing. She and her husband keep their speedboat at the hotel’s marina.

The show came about through the efforts of the National Council of Tourism; the hotel’s owner, Nadia Khoury; a civil defense organization, and student volunteers from Beirut University.

The Lebanese put on the production, but permission to stage it came from Damascus. Syrian troops have controlled the area of the hotel, along with the rest of West Beirut, since February, 1987, when militia battles reduced security in the predominantly Muslim half of the capital to an all-time low.

Muslim Cabinet members then requested Syrian help to restore law and order, but in spite of the presence of 7,000 troops in Beirut, a militia presence continued. President Elias Hrawi’s present security plan for a united, safe and expanded Beirut will rely heavily on Syrian muscle.

Syrian soldiers watched the elegant models parade in a variety of midriff-exposing, miniskirted, rhinestone-studded outfits.

Cotton jersey designs in mix-and-match solid colors swept up and down the carpeted walk as photographers knelt on the floor to capture not only the fashions but the carbon-black ceiling.

“These shots would mean nothing without the ceiling,” one French photographer said.

Abdel Baki’s collection ranges in price from $25 to $175--incredibly reasonable by Beirut standards, where imported French T-shirts can run $75. The show began fashionably late, and the crowd lingered long afterward.