Unapologetic glamour is almost controversial in the current climate. “It feels radical,” said Bruno Sialelli. “Going into a fabulous hotel and dressing up and having a party with friends was something so normal not long ago. Now, you feel challenged by it.” That was the innocent—but loaded—scene that played out in his Lanvin film, shot as a sort of alternate lockdown music video for Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl, with a real cameo by Eve. In it, a group of young people bring their extensive Lanvin shopping spree back to the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris, dress up, and have the kind of ball that hasn’t been put on a pedestal like this since pre-pandemic times, or perhaps before the recession.
For millennials like Sialelli, who graduated college during the financial crisis and went into adult life with anti-excess fingers hovering above our heads, such displays of glamour are inseparably tied to the early 2000s: the old world, where Stefani and the rest of us proudly dreamed of having “all the money in the world” to “clean out Vivienne Westwood in my Galliano gown.” Sialelli grew up in the South of France with MTV as his window to the world. “My understanding of fashion was very linked to singers and actors I had been watching,” he explained on a video call from Paris. “Now, in my 30s, I’m fascinated with that period of my life, because whatever you’ve been fed as kid will follow you for the rest of your life. This collection is very personal to me.”
Look up what Lanvin did in 2004—the year Stefani released Rich Girl—and you’ll see an instant affinity between those clothes and the memories Sialelli imbued this collection with. It’s a done-up and sexed-up but streamlined type of elegance founded in sumptuous emblems of glamour—of richness—like leopard prints, gem colors, thigh-high boots, and drapey cocktail dresses, lingerie elements, and the ever-alluring tuxedo. It wasn’t what Stefani wore in Rich Girl, but it was part of the same time, ruled by Tom Ford and Gisele Bündchen and Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin. “Honestly, I didn’t look at his collection. It’s just an emotion,” Sialelli noted. “I remember the vibe of that moment.”
Last season, the designer found his stride at Lanvin in a womenswear collection that laid the foundation for a new glamorous universe. Sialelli—who wants to considerably expand the Chinese-owned house—has already seen increased interest from showbiz (Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Rita Ora) and all-important new Chinese buying power. There, the appetite for excess is akin to that of the West in the early ’00s. “This community is not ashamed of having the lifestyle they have. They love fashion; they crave fashion. They’re really playing with their looks,” Sialelli said. “For me, it’s exciting to go to China and see characters that are over-the-top and imagine how far you can go, that your ideas can have a real life.”
If wicked tongues would say that the Lanvin man looks like the son of the Lanvin woman, Sialelli says it’s a similar acknowledgement of his clientele: a reflection of how wealthy young couples dress today. Take Hailey and Justin Bieber: “She’s more put-together, and he’s more casual. And that’s the reality,” he said. Those reflections largely fueled a men’s collection of baggy tailoring, but with hints of the louche but boyish spirit that the designer has consistently nailed in his menswear, exemplified in an azure blue velvet suit and matching mega puffer coat. Echoed in the womenswear, garments were adorned with prints by James Rosenquist.
At Lanvin, Sialelli is emerging as a designer particular to his generation. While an older audience might watch his film in horror, his peers will instantly get the sentiment. And as he stressed, “It’s second-degree. It’s ‘If I was rich girl….’” Contrary to the younger social media generations, who shamelessly flaunt their swag on the internet, the millennial generation was so affected by the recession that put an end to our own version of it that we’re constantly balancing materialistic shame with desire. “I was raised in a left-wing family…. I’m quite fascinated by a certain lifestyle and obsessed with fabulous women,” he said. Through his Lanvin, maybe it’s okay to indulge.
