Lanvin-apalooza
Alber Elbaz Hosts a Halloween Blowout
The Lanvin store on Madison Avenue has been open since July, but the French fashion house didn't really pop the cork until Friday night, when Alber Elbaz threw a Halloween Extravaganza that had all three floors packed with costumed revelers. Not surprisingly, ghosts and witches took a backseat to Lagerfeld and Galliano lookalikes—Elbaz himself even had a bespectacled doppelgänger. Other outfits had more esoteric origins. Editor Mickey Boardman explained that his bespoke bat-eared lace headpiece was "influenced by Queen Victoria's oldest daughter, and by a picture of Isabella Blow wearing a mask by Philip Treacy." That's one way to avoid the line at Ricky's.
Boardman's colleagues at Paper magazine's party division created the festive surroundings: The path upstairs was strewn with confetti and multicolored balloons, waiters distributed macarons and cotton candy, and Silly String and charming masks made from Elbaz's sketches were among the party favors. "Fashion's fun, isn't it? I feel like I'm in a fluorescent Champagne bubble," said Anne Hathaway, who wore a leopard-print Lanvin jumper and managed to stay somewhat anonymous behind a long-nosed Venetian mask. Meanwhile, drag queens vamped about as Dolly Parton and Tina Turner on a stage designed to look like a giant Lanvin dress box.
But that was no Janet Jackson impersonator on the third floor with Elbaz—it was the real thing. As ever, the designer was quick to put the spotlight on others. "I worked with Geoffrey Beene for eight years and Halloween was his favorite holiday, so I'm kind of thinking about him tonight," Elbaz said. "I think the last time I put on a costume, I was 10 years old. I usually dress other people."
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