Lanvin
PARIS, October 9, 2005
By
Who'd have guessed that Alber Elbaz, the man who bestowed soft decorative dressing on the world two years ago, would be the first to break away into a new, fiercely exciting minimalism? That was what he achieved for spring: a rigorous, couture-informed reengineering of clothes for women who spend more time striding out in the world than simpering at cocktail parties."Modernity is always in a rush," he said of his speedily zipped-up narrow skirts, shirts, and ties; kimono-derived dresses; and tapered pants, pulled in with wide patent or elastic belts. The subtleties (because minimalism can never again mean a matte black sheath) were in the looping drape of a back view, the folded bands pressed flat into the front of a dress, suggesting obis, and the textures: washed satin, gazar, and an extraordinary scarlet metal-thread material with the 3-D appearance of velvet, crunched into a luxurious Lanvin trench.
Still, the place where Elbaz's brilliant flash of insight really starts is at the feet. He knows we know life always looks better viewed atop a fantastic pair of shoes. Lanvin's red, turquoise, emerald, and yellow patent platforms are killer-class accessories that up confidence and dramatically alter proportions. If Elbaz drew, as always, on his old-school training in couture methods for the clothes, it was auto components that inspired him to think, he said, of "designing shoes like varnished cars—like a Cadillac!" One of the best examples had a high conical heel, a thick platform, and two python straps, one white, one navy. It showed exactly how a designer as influential as Elbaz can make the decisive difference between what went on six months ago and what's right now. Genius.
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