It was an Oscar dress that made history, and Elie Saab a household name, when Halle Berry hit the red carpet back in 2002 in her embroidered floral ballgown.

The spring collection had that same old-school Saab sensuality, as the designer dug into his archives and returned with similar sheer layers and embroidery in a soft palette of blush, powder blue, sage and sand.

This season he “pushed for all the codes of the brand,” such as the floating silhouettes, bustiers and floral embellishments that defined the house’s early-aughts ascent.

It’s the right moment.

“All the celebrities and the young generation are coming back for what are really the codes of Elie Saab. That’s why I wanted to express the power of the brand in this collection,” he said backstage.

To wit, none other than the “It-girls” of that era, Paris and Nicky Hilton, sat front row.

The house’s archive, housed at the Elie Saab Foundation in Beirut, is being mined by the design team for ideas and references, he added.

The timing is also a perfect fit, as the house is set to launch a high-street collaboration with H&M next month.

The project will translate Saab’s house codes into pieces for younger customers and “breaks the boundaries between the audience that thought Elie Saab was only an aspirational couture brand, too [be] accessible,” said company chief executive officer Elie Saab Jr.

Ready-to-wear and accessories are driving sales, which Saab Jr. said are up around 20 percent this year. Without the impact of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, he estimated growth would have been closer to 35 to 40 percent.

That goes hand-in-hand with the house’s overall global expansion. Saab is soon slated to have 21 standalone boutiques worldwide, compared with just five in 2021. A Miami store is coming next month, followed by the brand’s first Brazilian boutique in São Paulo in the first quarter of next year.