Lady in Red. A concept immortalized by poets, auteurs and dreamers alike, the very embodiment of allure and unshakable confidence. And Yousra, Egypt’s cinematic royalty, reclaimed it as her own. Swanning into the Joy Awards in Jeddah, draped in a floor-length, open-shoulder George Hobeika gown, in a shade so flaming red, it didn’t just turn heads–it spun them. A reminder that true power is dressing like you know you’re the moment.
“Every time I’ve dressed Yousra in red, she owns the place, it has magnetic appeal,” concedes Cedric Haddad, celebrity stylist and Yousra’s longtime collaborator, who knew exactly what he was doing when he swathed the doyenne in scarlet. There’s an unspoken color code that dares to suggest red has an expiration date for women of a certain age. But who, exactly is out there deciding the lifespan of a hue, and more importantly, when it becomes off-limits? Yousra certainly proves otherwise.
Red, historically favored by queens, revolutionaries and the best-dressed woman at any dinner party, belongs to no one and everyone. It’s audacious, eternal and should be worn accordingly. Synonymous with lofty, hot-tempered emotions – desire, love, passion and power – red has long held its ground in fashion’s oeuvre. The late, great Valentino Garavani built an empire on the shade, even coining his own Pantone: Valentino Red, a bright, poppy hue inspired, as fashion fables go, by a woman he once spotted in a crowd at the Barcelona Opera. “When you see a woman in a beautiful red evening dress, it’s really something special,” he once said, proving his point time and again since unveiling his first red dress, Fiesta, in 1959.
This season, Spring/Summer runways are awash in red, spilling across collections in shades that range from wanton and unapologetic to moody and enigmatic. Most notably, that Alaïa red dress, snaking around the body, gliding through the pristine…
