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Lanvin

PARIS, June 29, 2008
By Tim Blanks
The last day of Europe's Spring menswear schedule belonged to Lanvin. Fair enough—Lucas Ossendrijver pioneered the pajama-easy languor that has been one of the season's biggest trends—but he wasn't resting on his laurels. The designer originally opted for a big-volume statement, but then he decided to inject a little tension into the collection by torturing the volume into something else. He did this, for instance, with the elastic that tightened cuffs and gave a blazer a blouson waistband. Ossendrijver also used pintucking, pleats, or ruching on the sleeves of a safari jacket, or on a pair of pants so narrow they might have been leggings. It was a way of giving the sinuous fabrics he favors a new movement.

Elsewhere, he let the volume fly free in a leather trench, a nylon windbreaker, or a denim peacoat layered over denim shorts. They added a tough little fillip to a collection that otherwise was very much in the ambiguous vein that Ossendrijver and his mentor Alber Elbaz have made the signature of Lanvin's menswear. Hence, a tee beaded with a trompe l'oeil necklace effect, a male version of the faux tulle-mounted jewelry in Elbaz's womenswear. Or a matching jacket and top in a nubby black jacquard, or more of that clinging knitwear. The fabric sandals were also polymorphous (less so, the beaded high-tops). But this time around, Ossendrijver struck a faultless balance between the decadent and the divine. He claimed he was seeking "clothes with emotion." The rapturous response of the audience suggested he'd found them.

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