The Lanvin team was in New York today selling Pre-Fall, the company’s first collection since Alber Elbaz’s headline-making ouster last October. It both was and wasn’t business as usual. Elbaz’s witty, winning narration—so integral to the Lanvin mystique—was gone, obviously. So too was the finesse that comes with 14 years experience heading up a house. But the showroom was bustling nonetheless.
Chemena Kamali and Lucio Finale have been charged with designing Pre-Fall and Fall—and who knows after that? The search for a new creative director is ongoing. Fresh from a four-year stint at Chloé, Kamali, who oversees ready-to-wear, had just a week with Elbaz before he left, though she’s known him for years; Finale, who heads up accessories and whose CV includes time at Givenchy and Valentino, has been at Lanvin for a year.
“Our focus is on the Lanvin woman, who she was and who she could be,” Kamali said, “but the evolution of the house, as well. It’s about finding a balance between the fundamentals but also thinking of who that woman is today. How can you inject that dose of authenticity?”
Kamali answered that question first and foremost by designing many pieces with a hefty bit of slouch. The velvet pants of a suit were cut generously through the leg and pooled at the floor; the proportions of a herringbone overcoat were mannish; and a Japanese polyester jumpsuit erupted with bows. Elsewhere, slip dresses worn over silk blouses and leotard-like tops were designed with an eye toward current trends, while shirts and dresses featuring plastrons trimmed with deep ruffles called to mind her background at Chloé.
The ambitious collection touched on quite a few different themes, probably too many. The runway show the brand is planning for March will need to be more focused. Today’s most promising pieces were a pair of coats. A black rubber-coated cotton trench with a strong dropped shoulder, and a midi-length fur spray-painted in different shades of pastels captured that sense of real-life cool that she seemed to be getting at.
