A reconsideration of the meaning of Lanvin - its signs and signifiers, its fundamental definition. A Lanvin that resonates with the 2020s to the same degree that Lanvin defined the 1920s - a dialogue between past and future. The Spring/Summer 2022 women’s and men’s Lanvin collection by Bruno Sialelli is a tribute to the house’s identity, its ideology, remixed for where the world is today.
Lightness and freedom have always been central to Lanvin - qualities that still resonate today. Jeanne Lanvin empowered women with her clothes, dressing them in a manner that combined dynamism with romance, reflecting different sides of a woman’s psyche. Today, there is also playful sexiness, a youthful esprit. Lanvin’s lightness infuses the collection: dresses appear to float on tulle construction that melts into the body, some apparently simple drapes of fabric, like spontaneous gestures in flou, edges raw, softly moving. Knitwear is unlined, easy and close to the body; tailoring is featherweight and the volume of fourrure is translated to metallic tinsel. Toujours party.
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Lightness can also translate to luminosity: to liquid gazar and metallic mesh, reflective and sparkling. Sequin embellishment glistens, drawn from a 1934 dress named ‘Concerto’ and applied as panels to chiffon dresses. These references to history are also worn lightly, with Lanvin’s Margheurite becoming a naïve Pop daisy print, tailoring finished with sports detailing, and the Robe de Style abbreviated to a playful baby-doll, a fresh proportion. Throughout, a relevance is forged between then and now, the Lanvin women and a new Lanvin generation - mens’ suiting fuses with streetwear in soft relaxed layers, and skirts may be replaced with easy skateboard shorts for a different attitude.
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The idea of crafting Lanvin heroes and heroines is always forefront - today, we need them more than ever.
A collaboration with DC Comics translates images of archetypal comic book characters Batman and Catwoman into prints and graphics. The saturated colors of those comic strips infuse the collection: rich petrol blue, violet and scarlet, like venomous flowers alongside Lanvin’s delicate daisies. And menswear is heroic: wide shouldered, emphatic, glamorous. Padding both comforts the body and exaggerated the silhouette, while elegance and ease fuse, combining couture fabrics - satin, fine wool - with relaxed shapes.
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Gli accessori giocano con l'identità di Lanvin. La borsa 'Happy' con catene e trapuntata viene riportata in vita, unita a un nuovo design curvo, la 'Smile'. Nella tradizione Lanvin, i gioielli sono imbalsamati con slogan superlativi e affermativi in cristalli - danno potere alle donne, elevano l'umore. Una collaborazione con Judith Leiber inventa una selezione di minaudière scintillanti come giocattoli. Fanno cenno all'innocenza e alla gioia dell'infanzia, come incapsulato dalla madre e dal bambino che forma il logo immediatamente riconoscibile di Lanvin.
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Accessories toy with Lanvin’s identity. The chain-strapped and quilted ‘Happy’ bag is revived, joined with a new curved design, the ‘Smile’. In Lanvin tradition, jewellery is embalmed with superlative and affirmative slogans in crystals, they empower women, elevate mood. A collaboration with Judith Leiber invents a selection of glistening minaudière like playthings.
They nod to childhood innocence and joy, as encapsulated by the mother and child that forms Lanvin’s immediately recognisable logo.
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A dialogue with Lanvin’s contemporary spirit inevitably includes the legacy of the late Alber Elbaz - here, flowing voluminous dresses are a nod to his era-defining body of work, his own re-calibrating of Lanvin for modern times and for the lives of modern women.
