WWDMILESTONES
SECTION II
Lanvin
At 125
A STORIED FRENCH HOUSE
PIONEERED THE CONCEPT
OF THE LIFESTYLE BRAND.
PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE
“It’s just about
giving ease to
XPNFOwTBZT
Alber Elbaz
of his modern
approach to
GBTIJPO)FSF
a look from
fall 2007.
ALBER ELBAZ: KEEPER OF THE FLAME
."%".&-"/7*/413*7"5&26"35&34t#"(44)0&4"/%.03&5)&/&95)03*;0/
2 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WWD MILESTONES
Time Traveler
Lanvin’s history spans three centuries. By Joelle Diderich
Edmond
Rostand in a
ceremonial
suit Lanvin
made for
him, 1901.
1867
■ Jeanne Lanvin is born in Paris.
1889
■ Lanvin creates her first millinery
workshop on Rue Boissy d’Anglas.
Swimsuit, 1929.
A photo of Jeanne and
daughter Marguerite
is stylized and
becomes the house
logo (right), 1907.
■ A dye factory is built at Nanterre to
produce exclusive colors for the label.
It eventually also becomes the home of
the perfume laboratories.
■ The fragrance line launches with
scents including Irisé, J’en Raffole, La
Dogaresse and Le Sillon.
Lanvin’s daughter. Its round, black
bottle is designed by Armand-Albert
Rateau and features a gold version of
the logo designed by Paul Iribe.
■ Shops open in Deauville and
Biarritz, France; Barcelona and
Buenos Aires.
1925
1935
■ Lanvin is appointed vice president
of the Pavillon de l’Élégance, a space
dedicated to fashion designers at the
Paris Exhibition.
■ Her couture house now comprises
23 workshops, and each collection
■ Exclusive Lanvin creations are
modeled at a gala held aboard the
ocean liner Normandie on its maiden
voyage to New York.
■ Lanvin takes part in the Brussels
International Exposition.
1897
■ Marguerite Marie-Blanche, Lanvin’s
daughter, is born.
1901
■ Writer Edmond Rostand asks Lanvin
to create the ceremonial suit for his
introduction into the French Academy,
marking her first step into men’s
bespoke tailoring.
1907
■ Lanvin and Marguerite go to
a costume party, and a famous
photograph is captured, showing
the designer and her daughter in
matching costumes and hats. A stylized
version of the image by Paul Iribe
later becomes the logo of the house.
appointed as head of haute couture,
going on to win two Dé d’or awards.
Eric Bergère is put in charge of
women’s rtw.
1992
■ Dominique Morlotti takes over as
women’s and men’s rtw designer.
1993
■ Lanvin withdraws from haute
couture to focus on luxury women’s
rtw and accessories and its made-tomeasure men’s sportswear line.
1996
1938
Jeanne
Lanvin
■ The designer is elevated to the rank
of Officer of the Legion of Honor.
■ L’Oréal takes full ownership of Lanvin.
Ocimar Versolato succeeds Dominique
Morlotti as women’s rtw designer.
1939
1998
■ Lanvin takes part in the
New York World’s Fair.
■ Cristina Ortiz is
appointed women’s rtw
designer.
1946
■ Jeanne Lanvin dies
on July 6 at age 79.
Her daughter becomes
chairman and managing
director of Jeanne Lanvin
and Lanvin Perfumes.
1908
■ The company opens a children’s
clothing department.
2001
Alber Elbaz with
Shaw-Lan Wang.
■ Lanvin is sold
to Taiwanese
businesswoman and
philanthropist ShawLan Wang.
1909
■ Lanvin joins the Syndicale de la
Couture, France’s dressmakers’ union.
■ The designer opens two
departments, for women and their
daughters.
1950
2002
■ Antonio Canovas del Castillo
becomes creative director of haute
couture.
■ Alber Elbaz becomes artistic
director.
2005
■ Jules-François Crahay succeeds
Castillo. His work garners three Dé
d’or awards.
■ The first Lanvin wedding dress
appears.
1913
■ Fur collection makes its debut.
1915
■ Lanvin takes part in the PanamaPacific International Exposition
in San Francisco, increasing her
visibility in the U.S.
1920
■ The designer opens an interiordecoration store in collaboration with
designer Armand-Albert Rateau.
features 300 designs.
■ Marguerite marries Count Jean de
Polignac and becomes Marie-Blanche
de Polignac.
■ The designer is made a Knight of
the Legion of Honor, France’s highest
civilian decoration.
■ Lanvin’s nephew Maurice becomes
the director of the new men’s
department.
■ The company opens dedicated
departments for fur and lingerie.
1923
■ The company introduces a sport
collection that includes swimsuits, ski
suits and golf and tennis attire.
■ Maryll Lanvin (a niece by marriage)
takes over the ready-to-wear division.
■ Jules-François Crahay leaves
Lanvin, and Maryll Lanvin adds haute
couture to her design duties.
1989
■ Lanvin is sold to Midland Bank.
Robert Nelissen is appointed to design
women’s rtw.
1990
1927
■ Perfumer André Fraysse creates
Arpège to mark the 30th birthday of
2014
■ Lanvin marks its 125th anniversary.
1981
1985
1926
■ Lucas Ossendrijver becomes head of
design for Lanvin men’s wear.
■ Lanvin is jointly acquired by luxury
conglomerate Orcofi and cosmetics
giant L’Oréal. Claude Montana is
Fall
2014
2014 PHOTO BY DOMINIQUE MAÎTRE; WANG BY MICHEL DUFOUR/WIREIMAGE
1963
1911
WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
WWD.COM
WWD MILESTONES
Here, the bedroom
of Jeanne Lanvin’s
apartment, and the
bathroom (below).
Lanvin’s Lavish Lifestyle
A look at the designer’s exquisite 1925 apartment. By Joelle Diderich
JEANNE L ANVIN’S collaboration with French interior designer
Armand-Albert Rateau culminated in
the design of her private apartments,
completed in 1925, in the mansion she
bought on Rue Barbet-de-Jouy in the
7th arrondissement of Paris.
In 1965, Louis de Polignac, a cousin by marriage of Lanvin’s daugh-
ter, Marie-Blanche de Polignac, donated its entire contents to Les Arts
Décoratifs.
Evelyne Possémé, curator of the Art
Nouveau and Art Deco department at
the museum, said the gift came shortly
before a major 1966 retrospective that
revived interest in Art Deco. It is now
the most impressive of the three peri-
od rooms featured in the wing.
Consisting of a boudoir and bedroom in signature Lanvin blue and
a lavish marble bathroom, Lanvin’s
private apartments were first shown
in their entirety in 1985. In 2006, they
were moved to their current location
on the fourth floor of the museum as
part of a 10-year renovation project.
“It’s a huge undertaking, because in
fact you have to build a box in which
you have the ceilings with the molding,
and only afterward can the different
specialists install the original wood
paneling and the marble floor, re-create the stucco walls and reassemble
the bas-relief,” Possémé noted.
The bedroom walls, meanwhile,
are draped in the original fabric embroidered by Lanvin’s workshop. The
curator said the wood paneling in the
boudoir was particularly noteworthy,
as Rateau clearly referenced the Louis
XVI period while adding idiosyncratic
flourishes.
Rateau, whose other famous patrons included German-born banker
George Blumenthal, trained with
Georges Hoentschel before taking
over as creative director of Alavoine &
Cie. After being introduced to Lanvin
by couturier Paul Poiret, he helped
Lanvin launch her interior design division.
“He was a major figure and slightly
different from other interior designers
of the period, in the sense that he took
inspiration from the past in order to
turn it into something new,” Possémé
explained. “You can’t class him among
the modernists. He is inspired by the
past, but his bronze furniture is really
totally original.”
In addition to the lavishly appointed rooms, which appear hauntingly
intact, visitors to the museum can take
in a gold-and-black lacquered wood
screen designed by Rateau and a pair
of oversize hammered copper Jean
Dunand vases, all of which were in
Lanvin’s dining room.
Their original home has since been
demolished.
BEDROOM PHOTO COURTESY OF LANVIN; BATHROOM BY MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS/PHILIPPE CHANCEL
4
6 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
Keeper
WWD MILESTONES
PORTRAIT AND RUNWAY BY DOMINIQUE MAÎTRE; RUNWAY BY GIOVANNI GIANNONI, DELPHINE ACHARD AND FRANCK MURA
A look from pre-fall 2010.
was to understand the past, and to move
forward to the future.
WWD: Were the codes of the house
obvious?
A.E.: When I saw the clothes from the
archives, there were a lot that were
almost melted and wrinkled and they
didn’t feel like the real dresses, but
more like the lining of the dresses. And
I think the lining of a dress is like a
pajama, one of the most intimate things
one can wear. So that’s where I started:
I wanted to create a wardrobe that
feels like pajamas.
I think as an overweight designer,
I’m also very concerned about comfort.
Alber Elbaz holds
the brand’s heritage
in great esteem as
he modernizes and
moves it forward.
By Miles Socha
WWD: Was there a moment when you
realized that Lanvin was taking off?
A.E.: I saw some journalists starting to
IF THE DRESS RANKS as among the
most important fashion items of the
new millennium, credit must go partly
to Alber Elbaz, whose rejuvenation
of Lanvin owes much to this garment,
which encapsulated the legacy of the
storied French fashion house and
Elbaz’s own women-first ethos.
“I said, ‘It’s all about zip-in and
zip-out,’” he noted, referring to
the “easiness of that piece of the
wardrobe,” and to the exposed
industrial zips that have become one of
his design signatures.
“It was just about giving ease to
women,” he shrugged.
After working in obscurity for
seven years with Geoffrey Beene in
New York, Israeli-born Elbaz was
recruited in 1996 to head Guy Laroche
in Paris. Three collections of young
and fetching designs won him one of
the most high-profile jobs in fashion:
succeeding 20th-century legend Yves
Saint Laurent as the designer of YSL
Rive Gauche ready-to-wear.
He was fired in March 2000 in the
wake of Gucci Group’s takeover of the
house, succeeded by Tom Ford.
He spent one tumultuous season at
Krizia Top in Milan before sitting on
the sidelines of the industry for a year
and questioning his future in it.
“I was traveling, I was interviewing
with, I think, every ceo on the planet,
so there was a moment when I knew
everybody, and I mean everybody,”
he related. “It was great, but nothing
really made me say, ‘I do.’”
That was until he found his footing
in 2001 — at 22 Rue du Faubourg SaintHonoré, where Jeanne Lanvin founded
her fashion house back in 1889.
Having read that Taiwanese
publishing magnate Shaw-Lan Wang
acquired the house from L’Oréal, Elbaz
obtained a phone number for her via
a journalist and called her directly in
Taiwan, leaving a message.
Wang rang him back within minutes,
sparking a relationship with the
house Elbaz has frequently likened to
marriage, and one that has catapulted
him into the designer big leagues.
“I said, ‘How come you called me back
yourself?’ And Madame Wang said, ‘You
called me yourself, so I answer myself.
If your lawyer had called me, my lawyer
would have answered,’” he recalled. “I
understood that this was the basis, the
DNA of that relationship, that it has to be
all direct and personal and that is how
we got that intimacy that we have.”
When Elbaz asked Wang what her
vision was and what she would like him
to do for the house, he said, “She didn’t
tell me ‘Oh, I want it to be a commercial
success.’ She just told me, ‘I would love
you to wake up this sleeping beauty.’
And that was the starting point.”
Over the past 13 years, Elbaz has
catapulted and transformed the fashion
house — which market sources estimate
has revenues of 250 million euros, or
$321.1 million at current exchange —
from one largely dependent on men’s
wear to a leading designer brand for
women, and one of the hottest tickets
during Paris Fashion Week.
On the occasion of Lanvin’s 125th
anniversary, Elbaz took time out to
reflect on his tenure at the company.
WWD: It seems like you arrived at
Lanvin with a very clear, creative road
map for the brand. Is that true?
A.E.: I visited the archive and I stayed
for a very short time — maybe less than
a day, even — and everything was fragile
and everything was desirable. I didn’t
think of it as pieces of costume at the
beginning of the century, but I thought
of the women. When I saw the dresses,
I saw the women that wore them. And I
saw so many dresses and I thought, “OK.
The first thing I’m going to introduce at
Lanvin will be those dresses.”
wear Lanvin and I think for a journalist
to go and buy a piece of Lanvin, that was
for me the biggest compliment because
it wasn’t a present that we gave for a
red carpet to some celebrity or another.
It was a journalist that sees the whole
spectrum of fashion around the world,
and in the end she chose to buy a Lanvin
dress with her salary.
WWD: Kate Moss was an early adopter,
wearing one of the dresses with jewels
trapped in tulle. Have celebrities been
crucial in propelling Lanvin?
A.E.: Absolutely. We saw Kate Moss
wearing a dress that wasn’t even in the
store yet. I think she was shooting it for
a magazine and she decided to wear it
out to a party.
Then a month or two later, I saw this
lady who was about 88 years old from
Washington wearing the same dress
and it struck me: That is our logo: the
mother and the daughter. So it’s not that
we tried to do the clothes for the cool
girls. Our logo is not a lion and it’s not a
tiger, it’s just a mother and a daughter.
It’s a very emotional logo.
WWD: What have been your most
memorable celebrity encounters or
red-carpet moments?
A.E.: I always told the press office: Don’t
call people and don’t push them because
I didn’t like this aggressiveness of
pushing people and obliging them and
sending them things. I thought, if they
WWD: Would you say you imposed an
Alber Elbaz look on the house, or was
it more about projecting the legacy of a
brand?
A.E.: You know, when a designer takes
over a house, either they throw out
everything that was done and start
anew, or they actually ask a question:
Why is that house still alive? Or, what
did they do right? So it wasn’t about
asking what they did wrong, but it was
asking what they did right. And that’s
what I continued.
I started without firing even one
person in the house — I mean absolutely
no one. So it was working with the
people of the house and working with
the past of the house. I knew that my job
like it, they will come. Then we will start
from a different perspective and it will
be easier.
WWD: How do you feel about the advent
of pre-collections?
A.E.: I think that I’m the first one who
Raquel Zimmermann
and Hana Soukupová
backstage at Lanvin’s
fall 2006 runway show
at the Opéra Comique.
started presenting pre-collection, which
was the biggest mistake of my life. I did
the Hôtel de Crillon thing and I invited
like 10 editors and a few retailers and
I thought, How wonderful just to have
tea with beautiful flowers and to talk
about flowers and fashion. And then
more people wanted to come, and
WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014 7
WWD.COM
of the Flame
we did a second show, and then more
people wanted to come and we had to
turn it into a season. Now, the fact is that
almost everything that is in the store is
all about that pre-collection.
But what I also have to do is to
bring that dream. Through all my work,
I’m always finding something that
is between the reality and a dream
because I will always start with a
dream, I will always start with a story,
but then I will try to make it real.
My whole exercise for the last dozen
years at Lanvin was how to work around
the idea of modernity, [and] make it
beautiful. How can I prove to the world
that beautiful is modern?
WWD: Uncertainty and self-doubt are
things you’ve said you’re familiar with.
Is that what propels you in your design
career, or do you finally feel more at
ease and confident?
A.E.: Oh my God, I mean, it’s all about
not doing my job well enough, not doing
it right, not doing it on time, not being
able to deliver. It’s that motor, that
endless motor, you know? I wish I could
tell you, Oh, it’s becoming better. I
always remember one night before one
of the couture shows I saw Mr. Saint
Laurent and I asked him how he was
feeling and he said, “Very bad!” And I
said, “Why? But after all these years?”
And he replied, “Because of all these
years.”
And I thought, how smart and how
intelligent and how sensitive that
answer was, and I’m using it.
WWD: Does your training at Geoffrey
Beene and YSL still help you in your
work?
A.E.: Absolutely. You know I’m very,
very lucky that I had two mentors, two
teachers who taught me everything I
know. When I see students today and
they graduate from school and they’re
already looking for a backer and they
already want to be creative director,
I’m thinking: You know what? Take the
time and learn, to learn from the best,
to learn what to do, to learn what not to
do. And you learn through those schools
of life what is it that you want to do and
don’t want to do.
WWD: Has the Lanvin archive always
been a guiding light?
{Continued on page 8}
8 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
Resort
2015
SECTION II
WWD.COM
WWD MILESTONES
it’s not that it was good and now it’s
bad, it was one thing and today it’s
another. And I think that’s the beauty
of fashion…it’s so rapid on one hand
and also the fact that you can take one
day then leave it the next and then
restart again.
And how many people have a job
that has so many changes? That every
day is another day, and every season
is another season? In that sense, we
are lucky. We’re lucky that we have
a team that can realize our dream,
we’re lucky that it’s not about the
conventional, it’s not about a routine
— we’re lucky that we remain an
industry of emotion.
We are still an industry that, at
the base of it, are seamstresses with
needle and thread, and this is what
fashion is all about. And that’s maybe
KEEPER OF THE FLAME
{Continued from page 7}
A.E.: I always go back and forth. When
I first arrived, we were not allowed to
touch all these books and sketches and
stuff, but today everything has been
digitized and everybody has access
to it. And I always go back to it and
I always get inspired from it. I think
that karma is a good thing. I think
the fact that I respect the person who
conceived the house, I think I’m getting
it back from her as well in my own way.
WWD: Can you talk a little about your
rapport with Madame Wang?
A.E.: It’s about having dialogue, having
moments of intimacy, about respect.
It’s about good faith, and it’s about
loyalty. It’s above and beyond business
strategy. I think business strategy
is something that happens. We’ve
always had — I mean, knock on wood
— like a very personal and very good
relationship through all these years.
She gave me the thing that I needed,
which was liberty and freedom.
Freedom is luxury.
WWD: You seem to bristle sometimes
at corporate speak, yet Lanvin has
become a substantial player in the
business. How do you reconcile that?
A.E.: I work mostly by intuition. Every
time I think too much and try to
rationalize every issue, it doesn’t work.
I think that intuition is the essence of
this métier. I know that we’re getting
into marketing and all that, but you
know what? The fact that a woman
bought a white shirt last season does
not mean that this is what you’re going
to sell her next season. Maybe because
she bought only white shirts, maybe
this is the time for a black dress. And
if you do a black dress, maybe it’s time
to do a coat to go with it. And maybe
it’s using a little bit of this intuition.
That’s what designers are all about —
otherwise who needs us?
Fall 2009
WWD: You hadn’t tackled men’s
wear before Lanvin, so how did you
approach it?
A.E.: I thought, it’s the same logo of
mother and daughter, but in this case
it’s mother and the son, and how
she influences him. I hired Lucas
Ossendrijver at the time to do the
men’s. I adore Lucas and I think he’s
a great designer and a great person to
work with. I started to introduce all
these bow ties and pearl buttons and
satin and evening and I remember
how everybody around me was kind
of in a panic attack. They would say,
“But Alber, it’s so feminine,” but that’s
what I saw — that touch of femininity
into the masculinity. It was about this
feminine touch about a boy dressed by
his mother.
WWD: You go back a long way with Elie
Top. Tell me about your collaboration
with him on costume jewelry at
Lanvin.
A.E.: At Saint Laurent, he did the bags
for me and then he did jewelry. And we
worked together for a long time. Elie
is in a way like my younger brother. I
mean that’s how I feel about him. He’s
part of the family.
There were so many people who
tried to kidnap Elie over the years,
I can’t even start to tell you — I’m so
proud that he’s still with me. I was
actually the one that pushed Elie to do
his own brand as well. I said, “You have
a great name, Elie Top! No one could
be topper than you!” So I let him grow,
and we opened all the doors for him. I
never hide people who work for me.
WWD: So how do you manage all your
creative responsibilities? Are you
a control freak or are you more of a
conductor?
A.E.: Control freak. I’m sure that’s
what you’ll hear from everyone, but
not in a mean way. I’m a control freak,
but I’m working so much that I think
everybody around me sees that, and
I’m giving an example not by saying it,
but by doing it. And that’s why they’re
all working extremely hard.
WWD: Lanvin is known mostly for
ready-to-wear, more than accessories.
Is that a source of pride for you or
frustration?
A.E.: Frustration, let’s be honest. There
are a lot of houses that are all about
leather goods and they always did
leather goods and that’s what they are
good at. Then there are houses that did
ready-to-wear and then they had some
accessories to go with it. But I think
that today, the whole leather thing,
the bags, is the cash cow of fashion. In
the past, it was licensing, then it was
perfume, and today it’s like the bag.
We are selling fashions and are
touching women with fabrics; we
are touching people with love. This
is what we do. The accessories will
come when they come. You know, we
are still like a whispering house and
sometimes in order to sell a bag, you
have to brainwash everybody in the
market and you have to be everywhere
all the time, and you have to have a
celebrity wearing it, and you need
publicity that is over the top and…the
best corner in every department store
in the world, a poster on every bus
stop. This is the name of the game. We
have to work with what we have. We’ll
get there on our own terms.
WWD: You’re famous for evening
dresses and cocktail dresses. Is it still
Pre-fall 2013
your favorite thing to design or have
you warmed up to other things?
A.E.: What I’m trying to do is to keep
the same values I’m doing for evening
and trying to do it also for day. So
our day clothes are never just like a
T-shirt or a sweatshirt, but I will take
a gorgeous fabric and do a simple tank
top, or I’ll do an amazing volume dress
but I’ll do it in cotton. So I’m trying to
do things I love — I cannot do things
just because I have to. I have to love it.
I have to understand it.
WWD: You’ve seen the industry change a
lot since you joined Lanvin. What struck
you the most?
A.E.: Today, fashion is more of a power
business. I think power today in
fashion is not a bad thing, [rather] it
moves fashion forward, it gives the
ability for people to realize their
dream. So I think it’s a good thing…
the weakness of fashion, but that’s also
the strength of fashion.
WWD: What do you love the most about
fashion?
A.E.: I think the people of fashion. I think we
are a beautiful industry. We are one of the
nicest industries in the world, you know?
I go sometimes to parties of different
industries — and I will not mention so
as not to hurt anyone around. But I can
tell you that fashion — even though we
always sound fake and affected and
ignorant and all of the above, maybe — I
have to tell you that in fashion I met a
lot of great friends, good people, loyal,
smart, talented, hard-working. I mean,
this is one thing. And the fact that I
can make women, especially women
around the world, feel beautiful in front
of the mirror, and for them, I’m very,
very happy. That makes me happy. That
makes me very happy.
10 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
WWD.COM
WWD MILESTONES
Karen Elson and Raquel Zimmermann in the fall 2011 campaign.
Staging Style
Since its earliest
days, the brand has
capitalized on the values
of the founder in its
communications.
By Laure Guilbault
Edie Campbell’s family in the
fall 2014 campaign.
ticipation in the expositions, which
were relayed in the news. ”
Jeanne Lanvin’s communications
also included hosting a fashion show
on the first trans-Atlantic crossing of
the ocean liner Le Normandie, and
dressing the top actresses of the time
such as Yvonne Printemps, Cécile
Sorel and Régina Camier.
“[French stage actor] Sacha Guitry
opened the theater world to her. She is
very much present in the theater leaflets. Some read ‘actress so-and-so is
dressed by Jeanne Lanvin, both on stage
and in the street,’” Harivel explained.
Lanvin’s print imagery was often
limited to catalogues. When Claude
Montana stepped in for spring 1990 (he
did five collections from 1990 to 1992),
he tapped Roversi to shoot campaigns
featuring Mulder.
Theater has been a consistent leitmotif in Lanvin campaigns over the
years. “I believe that to Alber [Elbaz],
advertising is a way of staging his col-
Show bill featuring dresses by Jeanne Lanvin for Régina Camier, around 1925.
lections, like a director,” observed
Dominique Maneglia, head of advertising and publishing at Lanvin.
Maneglia also noted the repetition
of the mirror component in ads, as in
Lanvin’s spring 2005 campaign featuring Lily Donaldson.
Dancing is another key theme. Peter
Lindbergh lensed Auermann early in
Elbaz’s tenure. “Auermann was cast
because she used to be a ballet dancer
and has kept her dancer’s body,” said
Maneglia.
The brand’s casting is sometimes surprising, not only consisting of models.
One ad for fall 2012 featured “regular”
people, while another shows Jacquie
Tajah Murdock, a model in her 80s.
Family is another theme that inspires Elbaz. The fall 2014 campaign
shot by Tim Walker featured British
model Edie Campbell and her family.
“It is like hanging out with an eccentric English family.…Alber wanted to go
back into the idea of family. What does
‘family’ mean?” mused Cooke Newhouse.
In the Lanvin mix, there is emotion
and truth, a certain amount of reality,
according to Newhouse. “Fearlessness
is important to Alber and myself, trying things that we hadn’t seen. Not so
much, ‘This is spring, we went on a trip
to Mexico.’ It’s never that! It is the reality of living life.”
Lily Donaldson in
the Lanvin spring
2005 campaign.
Jacquie Tajah
Murdock in a
fall 2012 ad.
2014 PHOTO BY TIM WALKER; 2011 AND 2012 BY STEVEN MEISEL; 2005 BY PAOLO ROVERSI; 1925 COURTESY LANVIN HERITAGE
LANVIN HAS RELIED on accomplished photographers, top models
and sometimes surprising casting to
portray its humor, intelligence and elegance — values that founder Jeanne
Lanvin held in high regard when she
created the label in 1889.
Paolo Roversi, Steven Meisel and Tim
Walker are among famous names behind
the camera, while Karen Mulder, Nadja
Auermann and Raquel Zimmermann
are among the top models who have portrayed the house’s upbeat spirit.
Lanvin’s fall 2011 video campaign
is a good example of this. Models
Zimmermann and Karen Elson are
dancing in unison to the beat, with
impassive expressions, but constantly
changing wardrobes. The campaign,
which was art directed by Ronnie
Cooke Newhouse of House + Holme
and shot by Meisel, became a viral phenomenon. It reached 857,000 views on
Lanvin’s YouTube channel. The print
campaign echoed the video.
“The editing was very dynamic and
people were replicating that video
around the world,” recalled Cooke
Newhouse. “It was so funny. ”
Dynamic advertising is in the
brand’s DNA. “Jeanne Lanvin didn’t
do advertising, per se. But she used
several ways of communications,” explained Laure Harivel, the house’s
archivist. “She played a major role in
world expos. For instance, she was vice
president of the Pavilion of Elegance
in 1925. She was presented with the
Légion d’Honneur in 1926 for her par-
Oh,
MR.
ELBAZ.
How you surprise and delight us.
Happy anniversary, Lanvin Paris.
12 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
WWD.COM
WWD MILESTONES
Building a Better Men’s Business
Lucas Ossendrijver bases his designs on fundamentals and fastidious tailoring. By Paulina Szmydke
THE EASE WITH which contemporary
men wed street style with tailoring in
their wardrobes today can in no small
part be attributed to the house of
Lanvin and its prodigious men’s wear
designer, Lucas Ossendrijver.
The taciturn Dutchman, who says
he is “obsessed with construction,”
has redefined classic men’s codes via
cleverly deconstructed suits, a load of
innovative high-tech fabrics and a line
of sneakers elegant enough to be worn
with a suit.
The 44-year-old, who still works
hand-in-hand with a professional
patternmaker, says he never buys fast
fashion.
“When you have a well-tailored
jacket, a pair of jeans and a good
shirt — you don’t need much else,”
he contended. The idea of building a
wardrobe that lasts is at the heart of
Lanvin collections today.
Having studied at the Fashion
Institute in Arnhem, Ossendrijver
made his debut at Kenzo in 1997,
learning the ropes from Kenzo
Takada himself. Following a stint
at Kostas Murkudis in Munich, he
joined Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme
in 2001 on the quest for a slimmer,
more modern allure, which proved
revolutionary, before being called
on board by his partner in fashion at
Lanvin, Alber Elbaz.
Ossendrijver presented his first
collection for the label in winter 2006,
marking the dawn of a new era.
After nearly 10 years at the helm of
Lanvin’s men’s wear department, the
designer sat down with WWD to discuss
the house’s past and reflect on how to
make a “tailored” leap into the future.
WWD: Did Jeanne Lanvin leave a road
map for men’s wear?
Lucas Ossendrijver: She was one of the
first to think about lifestyle. Everything
you needed for a man’s wardrobe
was there. When I arrived at Lanvin,
that’s the idea that we started with,
not to think about fashion, but a full
wardrobe. That’s where the sneakers
came from, the separates and the
deconstructed suits.
WWD: What struck you most about her
who went shopping. It wasn’t
important. Today I think men do care
about the way they look and it’s not
seen as feminine anymore. And I think
that also reflects on the business side
— there has been quite a lot of growth
over the years.
Lucas
Ossendrijver
WWD: How does that impact your job?
L.O.: Sales have gone up, which is
fantastic, but it means that people
expect more — men are not all the
same. Men in China want different
things from men in Europe, you have
to cater to those needs, find a balance
within the collection. Also, the way
men buy today is similar to women.
They buy less because of need and
more because of desire. They look for
more fashion-oriented pieces. You can’t
do the same thing you did a season
before and just change the color.
WWD: Are accessories important, too?
L.O.: They are becoming more
important, also because it’s one of the
first things men buy. It’s easier to buy
a pair of sneakers than a suit. Before
I arrived at Lanvin, accessories were
nonexistent and one of the first items
that really took off right when I started
was the sneaker. I think the sneaker is
to men what the bag is to a woman.
WWD: Your master tailor, Patrick
to the house of Lanvin for me and he
trusted me to do men’s wear, and for me
it was a huge opportunity. I think we
established a relationship where the
doors are always open. I go to see him
when he does women’s fittings. And he
comes to me. It’s really an exchange, a
dialogue. It’s good to have somebody
that has a different eye, who steps in
from the outside and gives an opinion.
A monologue doesn’t bring you further.
WWD: Men’s attitudes have changed a
lot since you arrived at Lanvin almost
10 years ago. How do you cope with
the new status quo?
L.O.: Over the years, men have gotten
less afraid of fashion. Before, it was
always the mother or the girlfriend
Nogueira, mentioned that he would
like to move Lanvin’s bespoke
department in a more fashion-forward
direction. What could this partnership
look like?
L.O.: The biggest part of the made-tomeasure business is classic suits, but I
would love to bring in some elements
of fashion that are really new. These
could be fabrics with a new touch or
texture and color — no screaming
prints, just a little bit more energy.
Maybe make the shoulder a little
bit more narrow, propose a lighter
construction, have a look at the lapel
so that it resembles what we do in
ready-to-wear. Also, men who come
for a bespoke suit are in general older,
but I would love to dress younger
clients in bespoke as well.
I love men’s wear because of the
construction. I’m obsessed with
tailoring, everything that’s inside, that
you don’t see but that gives structure
to a garment.
WWD: Is this how you ended up
designing men’s instead of women’s?
L.O.: I’m not a decorator, I’m really
more of an architect with garments.
I love going to factories and working
directly with people who make the
clothes to find solutions and also
to find newness within that. Men’s
wear is more about the millimeter of
garment.
The fascination started when I
went to a flea market when I was still
in art school; I found a second-hand
jacket there, it was hand-made and I
tore the lining off to see what’s inside.
It had lots of ribbons and horsehair,
everything was hand-stitched. At that
time I didn’t know why it was there, it
was so complicated. It was really like
a puzzle. But it got me interested.
WWD: What is your ultimate goal at
Lanvin?
L.O.: To establish a language with a
vocabulary that people recognize
as Lanvin but that is wearable,
functional and believable. I’m not
here to bring the most extreme new
fashion every season, the latest “its”
— that’s not something I’m interested
in. I want to try to make a wardrobe
that evolves, that people can keep
for several seasons and that has a
function in life.
WWD: Has anyone in your family done
fashion?
L.O.: My father had a construction
company, and my sister works in
construction.
WWD: Construction, there you have it.
L.O.: Exactly — maybe that’s the
link! It’s true I have always been
attracted to architecture and design.
But architecture is very slow. It’s a
long-term process, and I’m really
bad at mathematics, so that wasn’t a
good start to it, and what I love about
fashion is the speed, the possibility to
start again, and again, and again.
approach?
archives, only a few photos. But when
I look at them, I get touched by the
way things were made. It’s never just a
fashion statement, it’s really about the
clothes, always very wearable and very
well done, not flashy. Lanvin is not an
accessories business, we sell clothes
and we try to make clothes that are
neither basic nor extremely fashion.
WWD: How do you strike that balance?
L.O.: When we do a collection, it’s
never about one silhouette; it’s always
about different propositions, because
in the end, it has to work for the client.
Lanvin is quite democratic in that way.
It’s very much about individualism,
not a uniform. It’s about things that
have a personality and are outspoken
without being extreme.
WWD: Usually, men’s and women’s
wear are separated. Not so at Lanvin.
You and Alber form a close design
partnership. How does it work exactly?
L.O.: I love Alber. He opened the door
Spring
2015
Fall
2014
Spring
2013
Spring
2011
Fall 2009
RUNWAY PHOTOS BY GIOVANNI GIANNONI; PORTRAIT BY DOMINIQUE MAÎTRE
L.O.: There’s no actual garments in the
In a word,
magnifque!
Happy anniversary,
Lanvin
Here’s to 125 years of inimitable style and your incredible infuence
on the world of fashion. We can’t wait to see what you do next.
14 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
WWD.COM
WWD MILESTONES
A Legacy in Men’s Wear
Fine tailoring was the calling card for much of the house’s history. By Paulina Szmydke
FOR DECADES, SUITS — rather than
frills, drapes or dresses — set the tone
at Lanvin.
Although the house’s meticulously
preserved archives reveal surprisingly
little about its men’s wear department
before the arrival of current artistic
director Lucas Ossendrijver in 2005,
it was the men’s wear division with its
strong roots in bespoke tailoring that
kept the house afloat during its fallow years.
Just before the arrival
of Alber Elbaz in 2001,
men’s fashion accounted
for 90 percent of the company’s annual turnover,
equally split between its
bespoke business and
ready-to -wear,
which
launched in 1972.
Various designers spearheaded the commercial
line, including Patrick
Lavoix and Dominique
Morlotti, both former Dior
men. All the while the bespoke atelier, still to be
found where Jeanne Lanvin set it up in
1926, catered quietly, but efficiently, to
an illustrious and particularly loyal clientele, preserving the house’s original
savoir-faire, which remains a driving
force behind the brand’s rtw collections.
“It’s very much in the spirit of the
house to serve the fathers and the
sons,” said Patrick Nogueira, Lanvin’s
current master tailor. “To me, this is
the only bespoke house left that is truly
French and very Parisian, discernible
by its discretion and minimalist approach. It’s tasteful, but you are not
supposed to notice.”
In fact, it’s so discreet, Lanvin
doesn’t even advertise it. And yet the
list of those who succumbed to the style
is long: from artists, poets and actors
to entrepreneurs and royals, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Jean
Reno, Jean Dujardin and the Aga Khan.
Moreover, the atelier has figured
among those couture houses that have
provided artfully embroidered uniforms to new members of the Académie
Française, France’s intellectual elite,
a tradition Lanvin started in 1901 with
Edmond Rostand, a close friend of
hers and author of the literary classic “Cyrano de
Bergerac.”
The
By the end of the
Lanvin
Twenties, men’s wear had
commuter,
become Lanvin’s utmost
1948.
concern. The assiduous
designer already had women’s and children’s lines,
haute couture and bridalwear, separate divisions
for fur, lingerie, perfume
and beauty in her portfolio. She had also established a sportswear line in
1923, inspired by hunting
and horseback-riding, and
joined forces with architect
Armand-Albert Rateau to create a home
decoration line. All that was missing was
an independent men’s wear division.
“From the beginning, Jeanne Lanvin
very much wanted to create a lifestyle
brand, so when the home decoration line
was discontinued in 1925 and the building housing it at 15 Rue du Faubourg
Formalwear,
1939.
Sportswear,
1938.
Business
attire, 1946.
Accessories, 1946.
Saint-Honoré was freed up, she jumped
at the opportunity, becoming the only designer in Europe who was able to dress
every member of the family for any given
occasion at any given time of day,” said
Laure Harivel, the house’s archivist.
Lanvin called upon three of France’s
most celebrated master tailors —
Deschamp, Banino and His — to set up
an innovative made-to-measure atelier.
Their mission: melding elegance with
comfort by borrowing from sportswear.
Oversize shapes and lightweight materials became the house’s signature,
and it adopted a large palette of colors,
including various shades of blue, that
remain a trademark.
In addition, Lanvin’s nephew
Maurice, the atelier’s manager, created
a highly popular line of ties in unusually quirky prints and colors that came
with matching socks.
The workshop also offered bespoke
shirts done by master shirtmaker
Bienvenu and excelled in loungewear,
including pajamas and bathrobes,
which, according to Nogueira, are still
a viable category.
“It was all very modern for that time
and not at all what other houses were
proposing,” said Harivel, pointing to a
double-breasted marble green suit with
large peak lapels and soft shoulders
that Lanvin presented at an exhibition
for tailors in Barcelona in 1929. It could
effortlessly blend in on today’s runways.
“I’m very happy and proud that we
still have that savoir-faire and the atelier. What we do there, for me, is the
heart of the company. Since there are
no archives, that is what I go back to,”
said Ossendrijver.
He noted he finds “the extreme attention that is paid to the construction
of a garment very inspiring. It gives me
ideas and it gives me energy to try and
introduce new elements.”
Both Ossendrijver and Nogueira
expressed the wish to bring bespoke
and rtw, whose pattern-cutter is also a
trained tailor, closer together.
“We are seeing an increasingly
younger clientele asking for more fashion-forward pieces that resemble what
they see in the shop windows downstairs,” said Nogueira, an exquisitely
cut pair of blue jeans laying on the
master tailor’s table.
16 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WWD MILESTONES
A Starring Role
Accessories continue to play
a major part in the company’s
growth. By Paulina Szmydke
SINCE HIS ARRIVAL at
the helm of Lanvin, Alber
Elbaz has been systematically ramping up the house’s
accessories department —
slowly, without the intention
of forcing it, and sometimes
“by coincidence,” as he put it.
To wit: For his first show,
the designer needed shoes. “I
was doing the fittings, there
were so many pins on the floor
and I wanted to protect the feet
of the model, so I bought ballerinas,” he mused, adding that
“in the end, it was just about
protection and nothing else.”
The auxiliary footwear
happened to be Repetto’s,
which led to a collaboration
with the fabled French ballet brand. Today, the buttersoft leather flats with elastic
seams that were born out of
that partnership rank among
the house’s greatest “It”
items, much like the versatile
sneakers created by Lanvin
men’s wear designer Lucas
Ossendrijver. Those sneakers,
having quickly crossed over
into the women’s collections,
now top the bestseller lists
on both ends of the gender
binary.
“The accessories business
was really small before we
came. It really started with
Alber,” remembered Elie
Top, a former Yves Saint
Laurent colleague whom
Elbaz tapped as jewelry designer the same year he arrived. As for his part, Top
said, “The Nineties marked
the death of costume jewelry,
but Alber put it back on the
runway — he loves jewels.”
Elbaz also reorganized
the studio, paving the way for
full-grown accessories collections. Today, they represent
40 percent of the company’s
global turnover, and Elbaz
oversees it all.
“We are like satellites
gravitating around him, all
together on the same floor,”
said Top — and, naturally,
“we influence each other.”
Cue the Happy and Amalia
bags, unmistakably Lanvin,
done in quilted leather and
featuring a grosgrain ribbon,
a bow and a chain — ornaments that can also be found
in the ready-to-wear and jewelry collections.
Historically, the attention
paid to the category is a significant step forward. Although
Jeanne Lanvin started as a
milliner, accessories were
never her focus. She reckoned
the dress, intricately embroidered by an in-house team
and at times wildly colorful,
was a gem in itself.
In an homage to the founder, in his first two years at
Lanvin, Top worked with fabrics to conjure necklaces that
were meant as a continuation
of the garments, before gradually moving toward bolder
statement pieces.
“It’s normal, it’s fashion,”
he said. “There is so much
lightness about a Lanvin
dress, it’s like a soufflé, and I
thought it needed an anchor to
ground it.”
It was a good move.
Ranging from Art Deco chokers to more pop cultureinspired items, such as the
“Love” and “Cool” necklaces,
which are said to have sold
out within weeks, Lanvin jewels have become collector’s
items under Top’s aegis.
But Elbaz is on a mission
to propel even more eyewear,
shoes and leather goods to
the status of “It” items.
This year marks a milestone in the couture house’s
history. For the first time,
a bag is in the spotlight of a
major ad campaign, said to
include global print media,
billboards in Hong Kong and
New York City buses. The
soft leather Sugar handbag
with metal chains and studded edges is slated to hit
Lanvin boutiques at the end
of October.
A Barbara Huttoninspired choker.
Lanvin’s
first
handbag
ad, for
fall
2014.
Men’s sneakers.
Lanvin’s
Love
necklace.
Lanvin ballerinas flats.
An Amalia bag.
Congratulations
on 125 years of shaping style,
sophistication and beauty.
18 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
SECTION II
WWD MILESTONES
A 1936 ad for the fragrance collection.
A publicity piece, 1927.
A 1946 ad.
A Storied Fragrance History
Perfume has long been a key to the lifestyle concept perpetuated by the founder. By Jennifer Weil
LANVIN WAS AN EARLY player in the
fragrance game.
Even before Jeanne Lanvin formally
started her namesake perfume label in
1924, she had already created scents for
sale in New York and Rio de Janeiro
with a Paris-based, Russian woman
named Maria Zede. The perfumer, who
until recently was mysteriously referred
to simply as “Madame Z,” worked with
numerous French couturiers.
Fragrances from that period included Niv-Nal (the name forms
“Lanvin” backward), Comme ci comme
ça and Irisé.
Lanvin’s first official scent, launched
in 1925 and created with Zede and
André Fraysse, who became Lanvin’s
in-house perfumer, was Mon Péché. It
initially was a flop in France. However,
the fragrance’s moniker was changed
to its English-language equivalent, My
Sin, for the U.S.
“It was an enormous success
[there],” said Laure Harivel, Lanvin’s
archivist, who added that Mon Péché
My Sin worked well in its home country afterward.
In 1927, Lanvin introduced Arpège
— French for the musical term “arpeggio,” a chord in which the notes are
played out separately in sequence,
instead of all together. It would remain its best-selling fragrance for decades. It was conceived to celebrate
the 30th birthday of the designer’s
daughter, Marguerite, a musician who
was consulted on the scent’s concept.
(Eventually, it would carry the famous
tag line, “Promise her anything, but
give her Arpège.”)
At the time, Lanvin had two bottle
designs from which customers could
choose, containing either of the house’s
perfumes. One was rectangular and
the other — created by Armand-Albert
Rateau — round and black.
Soon thereafter, the house introduced perfumes including L’Ame
Perdue, Pétales Froissés, Scandal,
Rumeur and Prétexte — with Lanvin
herself thinking up such names.
In many ways, Lanvin was in the
fragrance vanguard, especially as a
fashion designer. Eau de Lanvin, introduced in 1933, was among the first
unisex scents to be produced. Lanvin’s
beauty offer was swiftly broadened in
the Thirties with such products as lipstick, powder, sun-care oil and home
fragrance.
“We know that very quickly [Jeanne
Lanvin] made the link between all the
domains that seemed important to create a Lanvin universe,” said Harivel.
The house’s famous logo featuring
a mother and daughter, created by
Paul Iribe that’s still used by Lanvin
today, first appeared on the brand’s
fragrances. It is often featured also on
its eye-catching advertising that frequently touted the label’s five major
scents at once.
The first Lanvin fragrance,
Mon Péché, or My Sin,
launched in 1925.
WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014 19
WWD.COM
The bottle design
created by
Armand-Albert
Rateau.
Lanvin fragrances — along with its
fashion — were quickly exported, and
over the years, the round bottle’s design was tweaked, with a new cap form,
for instance. The flacon also came out
in various formats, such as a gold-colored version given to Lanvin’s best clients and in limited editions done with
Sèvres, a ceramic manufacturer.
Since the passing of Jeanne Lanvin
in 1946, the Lanvin fragrance label
changed hands numerous times. Her
daughter owned Jeanne Lanvin SA and
Lanvin Parfums SA until she died in
1958, when they went to one of Lanvin’s
nephews, Yves Lanvin.
All the while, new scents kept being
introduced, such as Crescendo in 1960,
Monsieur Lanvin in 1964 and Clair de
Jour in 1983.
In 1989, Midland Bank bought the
Lanvin group. The following year, Orcofi
and L’Oréal jointly purchased the enterprise. It was a time when beauty com-
panies were focusing increasingly on
fashion, and the French beauty giant
progressively upped its stake in Lanvin
until it became its sole proprietor in
1996. While owning Lanvin, L’Oréal
slightly modified Arpège’s juice and
packaging, and also launched some new
fragrances, but ultimately decided the
business wasn’t core, so it was spun off.
In 2001, a group of investors led by
China’s Shaw-Lan Wang purchased the
entire Lanvin business from L’Oréal,
and three years later, Inter Parfums
SA signed a scent license with the company for a fee of 16 million euros, or
$20.6 million at current exchange. At
the time, the business made a bit less
than 20 million euros, or $25.8 million,
according to Philippe Benacin, Inter
Parfums SA chairman and chief executive officer. He said the brand’s revenues have multiplied by slightly more
than three times over the past decade.
Inter Parfums — coincidentally based
in the same building as Lanvin Parfums’
first office, at 4 Rond-Point des ChampsÉlysées in Paris — became the fragrance
activity’s owner in 2007 for 22 million
euros, or $28.4 million. By then, Éclat
d’Arpège, introduced in late 2002, was
already a strong seller and Inter Parfums
continued developing the portfolio.
“Éclat is more or less half of the
Lanvin business internationally, with a
very strong position in Japan, China —
in the whole of Asia — and in Russia,
where it is positioned in the top five,”
continued Benacin.
Inter Parfums discontinued most of
the Lanvin fragrances and introduced
scents such as Jeanne Lanvin and Mary
Me. Arpège remains sold primarily in
France.
Overall, Lanvin fragrances, carried
in more than 10,000 doors worldwide,
are particularly strong in Eastern
Europe, Asia and France, followed by
the Middle East and South America,
said Benacin.
Lanvin is among the top-selling
brands in Inter Parfums’ portfolio, he
said, noting, “There are three with 100
million euro [$128.9 million] potential.”