Lanvin Catwalk fashion Show Paris Womenswear SS2014

For spring Alber Elbaz offered a beautiful Lanvin-collection full of shine, gloss viagra online and glimmer but also with a dark and offensive side. It was inspired in part by a photograph of the brocade-clad women, bride included, at an orthodox Jewish wedding in Jerusalem, their grim visages suggestive of unspoken woes, “everything shining,” the designer said during a preview, “but their eyes.”

He thought, too, about the notion of the clothes as mirrors, to reflect the audience. He also thought to bring back regular clothes, sportswear and celebrate the individual.

Elbaz offered chic clothes for every woman: refined, sexy, elegant, butch, relaxed. Sportswear looks were casual, androgynous tailoring paid respect to Yves Saint Laurent, and an elastic-waist jumpsuit both celebrated and mocked its utilitarian roots.

Uniting this diversity was the endless gloss in 60 different fabrics — multiple textures of lamés, tweeds, laces, brocades and on in a beautiful spectrum from earthy golds to the most vibrant jewel tones.

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show Paris ss2012

You need a genius designer like Alber Elbaz to transform the cut of a jogging suit into a powerful chic womenswear-collection. And so he did for Lanvin ss2012. On the runway appeared T-shirts, pencil skirts and loose shirtdresses,  stripped-down but powerful chic. Elbaz adopted the idea of comfy separates and sportiness for this collection. And how! Track pants ( with side stripes), were anything but casual with sexy slits. A white T-shirt had special, structured sleeves. And the stretch scuba material typical of athletic wear was transformed into tight skirts.

There was a definite Eighties vibe to this glamorous streetwear, not in the least because of the mega jewels — crystal crosses and gold chokers.  Some suits were done in green and black snake prints, which, in combination with the soft pleated dresses held with safety pins, reminded of  vintage Versace.

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

Alber Elbaz is one of the few designers who thinks about what women want before he starts designing. He thinks about their lives, their work, their obligations, their worries. And he tries to make the best possible clothes for them. Next spring he offers them many choices from long flowing skirts to flat and smooth day-dresses to pantsuits inspired by athletic wear (his pantsuit is an elongated jacket over skirts and stretch leggings) . There was even a nylon raincoat.

Elbaz doesn’t like perfection, he loves wrinkles. And his collection seemed a hymn to skin: wrinkled in pleating, stretched in all those sheaths. It was a spectacular foundation on which he could use heavy colors. From elegantly taupe to acid yellow, hot pink, and aqua. The designer doesn’t like pantsuits either, so the focus was at his favorite uniformstyle for women: dresses. They came in one-shoulder styles, in a navy stretch fabric, with two dark zippers at the front and a belt. One navy dress had sleeves to just above the elbow and a deep V-front.  Simple flat sandals were the key-shoe.

The shoes in fact were the reason the show started one hour too late. When Elbaz noticed during the rehearsal that the models couldn’t walk on the high heels he planned for the show, the designer decided to skip the shoes and change them for other. That’s what I call respecting women.

Backstage at Lanvin Menswear fw2010

Peter Stigter went backstage at Lanvin this morning to capture the vibe. He spotted Lucas Ossendrijver – the designer of Lanvin menswear – and Alber Elbaz – creative director of Lanvin – backstage styling the models and giving interviews to journalists like Suzy Menkes (who was lyric about the collection: “Loving Lanvin has become the leitmotif of the 21st century. But there was a good reason why the menswear show Sunday was cheered so fervently. This is a rare historic house where the clothes seem to live in the moment, yet embrace a traditional masculine  only culture.”)

Take a close look at the accessories – those rings and snakeskin bags ! – and the clothes. This is menswear from today – never aggressive or conservative, but self-assured and loving.  And, most important: it brings back the fun in men’s fashion.

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show ss2010

Alber Elbaz treated the audience yesterday with a a bombardment of emotional and visual pleasure. His ss2010 collection for Lanvin was an overload of color, glitter, and originality: dozens of girls marching, with a furious glamour, along a runway so long it seemed to stretch into  infinity. The collection was breathtaking technical:  drapey, pleated jumpsuits in polyester,  candy-colors like pink, salmon, peach, and vermilion, extraordinary fine leather,  a buildup of encrusted gold sequins and jewelry. There are no words to  sum up the powerful, slow-building impact of the vision Elbaz created. The man-made fabrics (al synthetic), the spirals of ruffles, the soft puffy coats, the plissees and the layering. His navy and mushroom jumpsuits are a whole new take on eveningdressing and a farewell to the official tuxedo. It had all the ingredients and inspiration women need to feel happy, confident and beautiful.