As we bid adieu to another design maestro - it's only been a week since Raf Simons stepped down at Dior - we look back at the sultry, sophisticated and wonderful body of work that Alber Elbaz crafted during his fourteen-year tenure at Lanvin and across the pages of MOJEH.
By Dmitri Ruwan
Solely appointed to restore Lanvin, once Paris’ finest couture house, Alber Elbaz’s first collection in 2002 slipped under the radar of fashion journalists, commended as yet another effort by a leading corporation to recreate and repackage a dead label. However, fast-forward to AW09 and the vision of Alber was clear; to dress real women. Alber's belief of ‘what looks good on camera may not necessarily look good on the body’ fast became evident in dresses and jackets that moved languidly off the wearer in luxurious fabrics such silks, marabou ostrich and distressed brocade, implementing a Parisian sense of rock'n' roll without commercialising the grunge factor. The Maison regained its place as one of the finest Parisian labels in modern times and Alber became the go-to for ruffles, colours and uncommercial dressing. Today, we look to some of his finest creations during his time at Lanvin in celebration of his revolutionary mind.
