“It has force, but a lot of tenderness.” Bouchra Jarrar’s Pre-Fall collection is a glimpse of what she’s doing in the engine room to navigate Lanvin onto her own course. Apparently, it’s quite a big ship. The presentation she preferred was to conduct a personal tour around the extensive basement-level showroom where buyers were writing orders. Posh basement, though. It stretched across a huge floor, and included, as Jarrar said, gesturing toward the awards-angled section, “flou for grand soir! And a lot of options.”
Jarrar cares about the reductive power of elegance—the very French, feminist refusal of froufrou and chichi. That’s an instinct that has the potential to inspire and resonate among high-profile women who are ready to speak out now. The French got this down years ago—in fact, after World War II and the student uprisings of 1968. What we will do in our time? Possibly, it won’t be to run toward dressing in a red Lanvin pantsuit. Yet Jarrar, in these times of baseline turmoil, will be heard louder and when she clearly speaks for herself.
