Luxurious Couture, Ready-to-Wear & Wedding Dresses | Tony Ward Couture

We took out our notebooks and pens, to learn about the ups and downs of the journey of our designer Tony Ward as he shared his knowledge and experience with the passionate students at Istituto Marangoni during his masterclass ‘An Insider Look’ in Dubai. Precious advice…

The movie ‘Tony Ward, the Legacy’ just ended, it narrates the tale of a young boy, who at just nine years old started working in an atelier and ended up becoming a renowned couturier dressing high society ladies of Beirut and an international clientele who would visit the bustling capital at the time. That boy was Tony Ward’s father, Elie who remains a building block of the couture’s house atelier even after his passing last October. With his father, teenage Tony learnt the craft, but then felt the need to fly with his own wings. He tells the students of his journey to Europe, where he studied at Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris then worked with Claude Montana at Lanvin, Gianfranco Ferré at Dior and Karl Lagerfeld at Chloé. He remembers his teacher, the school's doyenne with 25 years of experience, telling him, that a designer has to have ideas all the time. He recalls sleepless nights looking at the ceiling of his student bedroom, wondering if he had what it takes, did he have enough ideas? He also recalls being inspired by his mentor Claude Montana who told him, a stone, even an ugly one, could be shaped, broken, remolded into something beautiful. From that advice he understood the power of positivity, of choosing something, going ahead with it, trying, and if that idea doesn’t work, ‘you try something else.