The top Western fashion designers suffered mostly when purses around the globe snapped resoundingly shut during the financial crisis.

However Lebanese designers, who hail from a land where Fashion TV is the channel of option at the swankiest bars, say they have managed to flee the impact of the crisis as of two things — affordable haute couture and rich Arab clients.

It’s fair to say that Lebanon just doesn’t do informal. High heels, form-fitting dresses and salon-styled hair are piece of various Lebanese women’s daily routine.

Renting a designer dress to wear at a wedding is far more satisfactory, than, horror of horrors, opting to purchase a common high-street gown.

So it’s no revelation that the country’s top designers became more famous for their complicated, long, sequined and chiffoned collections than classical ready-to-wear lines and their clientele continue coming back for more.

In fact Elie Saab, whose slinky, decidedly feminine dresses are a red-carpet beloved for numerous Hollywood A-listers, said his pret-a-porter lines suffered for a few months in the United States due to the crisis, and not his haute-couture lines.

Abed Mahfouz, whose clothes have been worn by Beyonce and Victoria Beckham, agrees.