THE heat has been the biggest story in Paris today and we couldn’t help feeling a touch let down by Alber Elbaz at Lanvin this afternoon when he didn’t, after all, provide ice creams on arrival. He’s known for providing refreshments – but he’s also known for making women come over all swoon-like over a dress and any disappointment was quickly forgotten as he launched into a collection that was moodier than usual but somehow lightly conceived to give the Lanvin woman a spring in her step while at the same time a darker allure.
There was a gothic drama to huge pearl-encrusted crucifixes, eagle rings or belt buckles, and serpents that snaked in heavy embellishment around the necklines and down the sides of asymmetrical dresses or swirled in emerald silk around black palazzo pants with matching tops.
A hardier, more masculine feel than we usually associate with the man whose reputation for a killer dress was simultaneously maintained - don’t worry - meant black trousers had occasional slits up the side seams to allow for little summer air, and came with tuxedo jackets with built up shoulders.
High waisted pencil skirts in dark petrol green came with silk tops of rose or tan that featured surprise slices over the rib or down one thigh, while big cowel necked tops of springing organza took the signature house draping to a new, bolder level.
Tiny camera bags, cigarette box clutches and dresses that hung from gold bars at the neck were powerfully feminine as ever, while ruched chiffon dresses that were gathered at the neck and billowed out below the waist to show off jersey bodies beneath, and single shouldered draped togas of nude or pale green silk, were typically, attention-demandingly desirable.
The girls had their hair roughly scraped back – as if they too had suffered in today’s high temperatures – while their beautifully tailored tan blazer dresses and sleeveless satin tuxedo dresses were as polished as can be, with that sparkle of Lanvin sex appeal that is now so synonymous with the house.
“If you want a lover, I’ll do anything you ask me too,” breathed Leonard Cohen from the speakers and we couldn’t help agreeing that we’d do anything, too, if it meant we could go home with this stuff. Even without ice creams, even when heavy metal came crashing around our ears in a tent that was surely by that time of day illegally hot, we still want Lanvin every time.
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