“Shine!” said Alber Elbaz during a preview of his radiant and joyfully upbeat Lanvin collection, “but not the ‘bling-bling’ feeling shine as the idea of hope and positivity and light. That positive energy we are all looking for, that is very needed today.”
Elbaz had been in the South of France, “and it was shiny cars, shiny hair, shiny skin and diamonds that were shining a lot!”
he laughed, “But the eyes weren’t shining.” So he decided that his
collection, from beginning to end, would have the Midas touch glittering
if not always golden to make the eye gleam.
Elbaz’s take ran the
gamut from subtle gleaming black satin used for curvaceous little
cocktail dresses to gilded python, to dazzling metallic lamés in a
spectrum of colors from blush pink to viridian green, and the sort of
exotic chiffon and jacquards that Yves Saint Laurent
loved to use for his orientalist gowns in the 1970s. Elbaz called it
“an homage to fabric,” he was inspired by the shafts of light in a
Florentine textile workshop that illuminated thousands of brightly
colored bobbins being woven into cloth of alchemical beauty, a
painstakingly laborious process that is increasingly endangered. Elbaz
took these very traditional fabrics, “and gave them a
workout stonewashed them, crushed them,” to soften and modernize their
texture and feel.
Elbaz also mixed color with the sleight of hand
of YSL a cardigan jacket in electric pink over a platinum singlet with a
midnight blue skirt, say, or a forest green jean jacket in quilted
metallic tissue worn with a full maxi skirt in shimmering pistachio and
riffed on the legendary YSL “Smoking” with short evening Spencer jackets
worn with black drainpipe pants.
That brilliant fabric was also
used for purses shaped like a cartoon robber’s swag bag, and for
teetering sandals with jewel-encrusted heels, or mannish penny loafers
that gave a cool attitude to the exuberant evening looks. Jewelry was as
inventive as it always is chez Lanvin: this season, necklaces were
weighted with giant cabochon glass stones magnifying the fabrics used to
back them.
In a convincingly modern way, the textile brilliance
blended the conventional distinction between day and evening clothes a
tiered gypsy skirt in yellow tinsel chiffon, of course would look as
great in the sunshine-y day as a parachutist’s jumpsuit in pink-gold
worn for a gala evening.
Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories
Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE / LANVIN
Runway: Photography by Marcus Tondo / InDigitalimages
Details: Photography by Gianni Pucci / InDigitalimages
'Subtle Transparencies by Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2014'
Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE / LANVIN
Runway: Photography by Marcus Tondo / InDigitalimages
Details: Photography by Gianni Pucci / InDigitalimages
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'Subtle Transparencies by Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2014'
'Peter Copping has a delightfully deft way of drawing his audience into a circle of intimacy in his Nina Ricci shows. His clothes are delicately drafted and never in high-drama mode, but he’s become extremely skilled at finding devices to focus the attention of a packed Paris tent on his pretty but never saccharine collections.'
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