After 30 years of adorning brides with bespoke wedding gowns, Australian designer Steven Khalil is rolling out the couture carpet in collaboration with Designer Rugs.
The collection marks the couturier’s first release in the interior design category, with three rugs that draw inspiration from some of Khalil’s most intricately detailed red carpet gowns.
And, by February 2025 Khalil is working on ensuring his clients and broader customers can continue to put their best foot forward — with the launch of a footwear collection.
Couturier, Steven Khalil is known for bridal, red-carpet, special occasion and ready-to-wear— Maison Collection gowns.
His eponymous boutique is located on Glenmore Road in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, where customers can shop his jewellery, fragrance and accessories alongside the gowns.
“I wanted to do bridal gowns because I loved wedding dresses, I’ve always loved them, from a little boy,” Khalil told Inside Retail.
However, Khalil always knew that he wanted to design and create across multiple product categories— like designers Elie Saab and Vera Wang.
Steven Khalil Interieur is the home interior offering that Khalil plans to continue expanding on following the collection with Designer Rugs in November.
“My friend Owen owns a company called Branch Out and he’s always encouraged me to venture into interiors, similar to how Elie Saab and Vera Wang moved into other avenues of design,” Khalil said.
“So one day it was just a conversation and the next Owen connected me with Designer Rugs; that snowballed, and here we are.
“If this goes well, I feel like the world is my oyster with anything I would go into; beautiful homewares; like cutlery, plates— anything to do with the home.”
“Even sofas and artworks,” Khalil said were on the cards, “I’m excited for what’s next and how it’ll come to life; it doesn’t have to be limited to interior design,” he added.
“It could be lots of little things; like vases and picture frames— that are easily accessible, and have good brand alignment,” Khalil said.
Khalil was a customer of Designer Rugs before launching his collection with the brand.
“I’ve always admired the work they did with Catherine Martin; who is Baz Luhrmann’s wife, she did all of the costume design and production on all of his movies,” he said.
“I kind of had it in the back of my mind that one day I’d love to collaborate with them.”
The three-piece collection with Designer Rugs presented some challenges in translating Khalil’s vision into the “nitty-gritty of the finery inside the rugs; the colours, tones and textures were all very new for me,” he said.
“The Designer Rugs team was amazing and brought the vision to life.
“How it worked was I submitted a range of beading which would be translated into rug details; two of them were gowns, that translated into rug design as part of the collection.”
The De Miel and La Nuit are hand-tufted rugs, made from semi-worsted New Zealand wool and bamboo silk, with a rectangular shape— retailing for just under $6500.
The Perles rug is of the same material construction, but retails for $5,590 and takes a circle shape; inspired by the pearl beading on Khalil’s bridal works.
Each of the three rug designs can be customised in shape, size and colour by Designer Rugs— online and in-store— alike to Khalil’s bespoke clothing designs.
Retailing his fragrance line to a broader market is an avenue Khalil is keen to walk, “I’ve been busy, and I’ve created boutique fragrances with a specialised scent that wasn’t commercialised and available globally,” Khalil said.
“The next step for the fragrance and the shoes; that are coming, would be retailing to a bigger market.
“I need somebody just to come in and say, ‘You know what, Steven, you do this, and I’ll do the rest,’ because I’m so busy.”
Khalil’s shoe line is yet to be named, but supplier and manufacturer trips to Italy have seen the idea evolve into a product over the last six months.
The initial footwear collection will begin with bridal styles, “But I want to become known for shoes as well; going into colour collections,” Khalil said.
Initial costs place the shoes within the premium market, at a price point that ranges in the vicinity of $1000, “Being handmade in Italy, they’re just a bit more expensive,” Khalil said.
Fittingly, being made in the Italian town of Da Vinci, the expectation is that the footwear collection will be nothing less than a work of art, alike to Khalil’s other creations.
“With the shoes, I haven’t properly priced them yet, but I’d love to get them between $600 and $800 because I want to get the price of those down as much as we can,” Khalil said.
This would competitively position the shoes within the luxury market, against established players such as Christian Louboutin.
There are no major retail partnerships for the footwear range currently, but “I will be putting it out there,” Khalil said, adding, retailing in “David Jones and Harrods would be amazing.”
Khalil’s creations retail in boutiques globally— across London, the US and Italy— where he plans to stock the new line, with existing and new retail partners.
By February 2025, Khalil is confident that clients will be taking their first steps in the shoes.
The post The next Vera Wang: Steven Khalil Interieur and Designer Rugs’ floor couture appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.
