Runway Review: Lanvin Spring 2015

The model that opened Lanvin’s spring-summer collection at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris astonished the public by its simplicity: It was a long black dress with a short sleeve and a bare shoulder, a side opening in the leg and a bulky bracelet.

To celebrate Lanvin’s 125th aniversary, designer Alber Elbaz made a special journey to his roots and revisited the work of Jeanne Lanvin. From iconic elements like simple gowns and lavish embroideries to the combination of black and gold, circles and panels, the Israeli fashion designer began to imagine what would have been the work of the founder today and made it true.

The long dress was followed by a long list of simple elements – Elbaz called them “nothing”- that started from lovely, short dresses with the simplest decoration like thin gold chains outlining seams and fastening necklines. Shapes were diverse: biker jacket; oversize, sleeveless jacket with wide lapels; elegant trench.

Light notes of ancient Greece also appeared in tunic dresses, and oriental scents impregnated baggy pants that were combined with batwing sleeves.

And to finish, Elbaz’s introduced his take on “everything”: Lace dresses in dark colours, shades of black and blue, and and sleekly cut jackets that reproduced some images from the twenties found in their history files.