Fashion Designer Elie Saab’s Mountain Retreat

Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab is known for creating gowns for red-carpet walks that are viewed, and scrutinized, by millions. Personally, he’d rather stay out of the limelight.

“I don’t go out a lot. I like to receive people at home,” says the 51-year-old Mr. Saab.

His mountain home is at the end of a long, winding and breathtaking climb to the town of Faqra, an hour’s drive northeast of Beirut. A visitor is rewarded for the journey with a cockpit-like view of a valley and rolling hills. Mr. Saab takes in a similar view from his breakfast table, seated in his garden across from his wife of 25 years, Claudine, and offering plates of local cheese, olives and sweets.

His 16,140-square-foot house, which cost about $20 million—from purchase of the land to its completion—is where the Saab family now spends about two months a year—one in summer and another in winter. The Saabs also have homes in Beirut, where the designer spends most of his time because of his work; in Geneva, where their children went to school; and in Paris. Mr. Saab says he will likely be spending more time in London, where he plans to open a new store in the spring.

The Faqra home was designed by Mr. Saab’s architect friend Chakib Richani, who also worked on his other homes and boutiques. It took just under two years to build the home on an acre of land.

Mr. Saab works closely with Mr. Richani to develop his interior designs. “The coordination was easy because we both think in the same way. He loves my clean lines,” says Mr. Richani. “This is the reinterpretation of an old Lebanese house done in a modern way.”

“Every house has the flavor of the area,” says Mr. Saab, noting the Faqra house highlights nature, while his home in the historic Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayze is filled with antiques.

The Faqra home, he adds, played an important part in the upbringing of their three sons—all in their 20s—as a place where they could enjoy activities such as skiing and horseback riding.

Mr. Saab’s stylistic influence can be seen in the home’s symmetrical lines, open spaces and earth-toned colors of black, white, cream and dark brown.

The largely self-taught, Beirut-born fashion designer opened his business in Lebanon’s capital in 1982—when he was 18 years old—in the midst of the 15-year civil war. He rose to international fame when actress Halle Berry wore his gown at the 2002 Academy Awards; she received an Oscar for “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first African-American woman to win for a leading role.

It marked the first time a Middle Eastern designer dressed an Oscar winner, putting Mr. Saab in the spotlight and making Lebanon an unexpected hub of high fashion.

The attention helped bring notice to fellow designers Reem Acra, Rabih Keyrouz, Georges Hobeika, Zuhair Murad, Krikor Jabotian and Georges Chakra.

Five years after Ms. Berry’s award, Mr. Chakra designed the dress worn by Helen Mirrenwhen she won an Oscar for best actress.

Mr. Saab has continued to develop his brand, launching a perfume in 2009 and daywear in 2011. When asked for an example of Mr. Saab’s daywear, his wife, sitting across the breakfast table, points to her cream shirt—a simple, flowing design—and says, “I am wearing Elie Saab.”

The mountain home’s open-floor plan features a two-story ceiling. On the top floor are five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The ground floor, sunk into the mountain, has a large kitchen and game room. At its center, in a wide foyer, is a bed of orchids set in a large square planter—a modern minimalist version of the traditional Arab courtyard home.

The detail is echoed outside, where two fire pits in the pool area are used for warmth in cold weather and for outdoor cooking in the summer months. The home also has several indoor and outdoor fireplaces: in the bedroom, the library, the living/dining area, in the basement’s “multipurpose” room and in the garden wall outside.

Mr. Saab and his family spend most of their time in the garden, he says. There, green grass, trees and bushes against purple lavender and hydrangea create a frame for the sweeping view below.

“I wanted to pay homage to the pristine mountains,” says the home’s landscape architectVladimir Djurovic, noting that he took care to make sure the residences in the mountains below can’t be seen from the garden. “It’s a sculpted section and a manipulated landscape.”

Mr. Saab says he doesn’t work in Faqra, instead taking time to get rest and inspiration before heading to his Beirut office on a Monday morning to work with his 300 employees. “This is another side of Lebanon,” he says.

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