Lanvin

On my flight back to California I listened to an interview with Alber Elbaz(that's him to the left), the designer for French fashion house Lanvin. Lanvin is the oldest fashion house still working these days(started by Jeanne Lanvin in 1909), and after taking the helm in 2001 Elbaz has brought it back to the forefront of fashion. His designs are gorgeous, feminine and actually wearable (except for the pesky price tag). And, according to Wikipedia he was one of Time's most influential people of last year. cool. He is also Israeli (although born in Morocco) and I have noticed the past few years Israel is churning out fantastic designers.

Anyway, back to the interview; it was short (a New York Times series with or for Jet Blue I guess) but he said while he wants to make fashion relevant, it must always be beautiful, and one should never create a dress that will wear the woman. The woman should always be wearing the dress. That philosophy seems to me to separate him greatly from many of his peers.

Examples:

This is from Lanvin's Spring '08 collection. The following is from the Resort '08 collection:


The bags and shoes have been getting alot of press lately as well. The ballet flats are divine, and Bagsnob loves the Lanvin tote bags.