Lanvin SS 2013 Review

Last season Alber Elbaz celebrated ten years at Lanvin. That anniversary collection was like a best of or a greatest hits. It wasn’t derivative but all the signatures that Elbaz has introduced during his tenure were there. Before his latest spring collection I wondered if there would be any major shift in the look because I felt the last collection was a great book-end to a decade of style. It would seem my hopes were dashed and I was a wee bit disappointed but it was just the fashion geek in me seeking a knockout collection. And I mean, it really was a knockout anyway because Elbaz’ collections are always beautiful and ultra luxe. Ugh, what the hell am I trying to say here? Okay, I was expecting a big change but there wasn’t one but it doesn’t matter anyway because I still loved the collection.

The tuxedos were in some ways a sad reminder of how utterly amazing he would’ve been had he not been fired from YSL all those years ago (thanks a bunch Tom Ford). And I say that because the tuxedos in this collection were amazing but they won’t get the credit they deserve because Lanvin aren’t primarily known for them. It’s their jewel tone and jewel smattered dresses that get all the attention.

There was definitely an experimental edge to some of the looks like the giant bows stamped down one side of a couple of dresses or the sleeveless jacket with a single white lapel flapping about. Apart from that it was business as usual. One sleeved tops, big shoulders, statement jewelry. My favourite look would have to be the black 80’s looking prom dress worn with high heel cowboy boots. And those boots have best seller written all over them. Most importantly, Elbaz creates desire. Here’s to another 10 years.

Lanvin AW 2012 Review

Alber Elbaz celebrated 10 years at Lanvin with his fall 2012 collection. And in typical Elbaz/Lanvin style he celebrated women-and excess. The collection opened with a series of startlingly-hued dresses in daffodil, raspberry, and grape. That grape look was extraordinary in the way it was moulded to the model's body. The collection was a reinterpretation of Alber's modern-day codes for Lanvin: fur, epic jewels, gloves, a big sleeve, and moody colour. It seems Alber has no intention of going elsewhere so it'll be interesting to see if he continues in this same trajectory or he'll follow the 'if it aint broke' school of thought.

Lanvin Spring Summer 2012 Review

Each season is never terribly surprising. There's always an 80's vibe to his work. Big shoulders, flashy costume jewelry and bags, single-sleeved dresses. For spring Alber Elbaz went dark. He ditched the sparkly jewel tones and went for a palette of mostly black, taupe, white and grey. He hopped on the digital printing bandwagon and had snakes appear on shirts and pants.
I love that he still creates movement and space around the body. This is something he continues to push every season with varying results. The opening skirts were a sexy new look for Lanvin but there were still intentional folds of puckered fabric for an added touch of comfort. The waists on the skirts curved like the lip of an urn and looked beautiful. The built up shoulders of some dresses had both a strength and a softness to them. He wasn't trying to create a false or convincingly strong shoulder because when you look closely at it you can see it is spongy.

The most remarkable look was a black pencil skirt with a deceptively simple-looking draped top. The neckline looks like it is collapsing on itself, almost like a vase on a potters wheel falling apart.

Alber-Don't Fucking Call Me Albert-Elbaz Does It Again

Look at the draping on this dress. Mind sploded

You got a little something on your top

Crunchy pleats

Look at those colours!!!!

Sexy but not clingy

Striking column, adds to the minimalism story for spring

How can I make something sexy but not clingy? I think Alber Elbaz asks himself this question with each Lanvin collection and for Spring he used fabric pleats and folds to address the question. If you look at Elbaz’ collections you’ll see that he always tries his best to make flattering clothes that have movement and ease. He’s sort of the opposite of Versace.

The show opened with gorgeous one-shouldered tops with light, flowy skirts in olive and mousse green, yes I said mousse, I’m really bad at describing colours. There were caramel toned leather harnesses-something that seems more McQueen than Lanvin- but they were weirdly inviting. The dresses in corrugated fabrics of charcoal and olive green could potentially function like seersucker, allowing airflow to trap under the bumps of fabric, cooling the skin. There were ingeniously draped sheer dresses in rust and green and I really mean ingenious, especially the one worn by Iris Strubegger. Lime,eggplant and strawberry micropleat dresses were giving me Pleats Please vibes but duh, of course they would.

There were some zippered dresses too that looked all slice n dice Japanese avant garde. It wasn’t until I watched the video of the show that I realized why he’d done this. The movement! Ugh, you should see the way these dresses move, it’s beautiful. I’ll post a video but only if you promise to take a look.

Overall this collection is really impressive and ever thoughtful however some of the dresses towards the end were overly embellished and seemed out of step with the refreshingly simple columns and felt like they belonged in a different collection.

CONFIRMED

Jamie Bochert + Lanvin

Love Jamie Bochert. There's something so unsexy about her that really draws you in. Those eyes, the hair. She's like the anti Lara Stone.

Style Dossier: Julianne Moore

There's just something about Julianne Moore that's earned her a legion of fans-mostly gay fans for some reason. Maybe it was 2002's Far From Heaven. For me it's a tie between Boogie Nights and Magnolia. The 49 year old actress has been a face for Revlon since 2002 and you've no doubt seen her more recently in ads for Bulgari.
Her personal style is almost always chic, refined and never over the top. It may be a tad cliche wearing green because you have red hair but I don't care, Moore pulls it off. She seems to be a muse to Tom Ford (he cast her in his debut film and dressed her for the premiere) and possibly Stefano Pilati judging by the number of YSL outfits she's worn. Another favourite of Moore's is Lanvin but who isn't a fan of Alber Elbaz?
Normally for Style Dossier I try to get at least one hideous outfit choice but I couldn't find one. Any suggestions?

Above: This was the worst look I could find

CACHAREL SPRING 2010

I flicked through the Cacharel collection and when I got to the end I didn’t recognize the head designer. Cacharel’s been on the down low over the past number of years, it’s popularity waned with designers Eley Kishimoto doing their best to keep the label relevant in the early 00’s but to no avail. Belgian Cedric Charlier has been hired as head designer and I know nothing about this guy so we’ll gloss over that and move through to what was on show. Okay, I just Googled him and he’s done six years at Lanvin and a stint at Michael Kors. The plot thickens.
There were elongated shirts in white, cream and blush with neat little collars. The skirt shape was modern with pleats and the hem dipped low at the back. It just sat in a way that looked refreshing especially when paired with the stretched shirts and knit tops.
There was a speckled print shirt-dress that reminded me of a 90’s formica bench-top. It looks cooler than it sounds. Trust. Charlier squared things off with (what I presume to be hand-painted) coats and dresses. It looked like paint had been smeared on with a spatula. The colours were great.
Overall this is a fantastic debut for Charlier, he clearly has an eye for colour and proportion. My only criticism (if you could call it that) was that it looked like something that could’ve come from Chloe.

LANVIN SPRING 2010

Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga asked this week "who are these women having cocktails?" It was a statement about his collection featuring mostly pants and his belief that women who wear cocktail dresses are a myth. At Lanvin, it would appear Alber Elbaz would have the answer. His spring show opened with a series of short black dresses with great curls of fabric sweeping around necklines and working their way down the side of the body. The fabric caressed the body, never hugging it as looser fitting clothes are a house code at Lanvin. There were tops that displayed Elbaz' eye for drape, some in chiffon that appeared merely placed on the models before they strutted out with their cream puff hair and single leather glove. It was just so effortless. The collection rounded out with some fuck-off costume jewelry, a jumpsuit and some dresses drizzled with gold sequins and other embellishments. There's such a realness to Elbaz' work that I don't know how any woman could resist such beautiful style and craftmanship.