Aesop's fable of the plodding tortoise outlasting the sleek hare had little resonance in the fashion world before slowly, ponderously—and sometimes painfully—Alber Elbaz shuffled to center stage. As the head designer for Lanvin, the Casablanca-born Israeli is the toast of Paris, his clothes worn by one-name-only "It" girls Nicole, Sofia, Chloe—as well as the triple-monikered Sarah Jessica Parker. Last March, his seventh collection for Lanvin drew gasps for beautiful evening pieces of ravishing fragility.

But let's plod back to February 2000, when this designer-for-hire—whose résumé included time at Geoffrey Beene and Guy Laroche—was at the helm of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL). Following the retirement of the master himself from the grueling demands of ready-to-wear, Elbaz had been hand-picked by Pierre Bergé to be the head designer, a fact that proved irrelevant when Domenico de Sole's Gucci Group acquired the brand, and Elbaz was elbowed aside to make way for Tom Ford.

When Elbaz took a bow after his third and final YSL collection, he tried to strike a positive note, playing snippets from Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Tomorrow from the musical Annie. But when the show ended, Elbaz was yesterday's man, and he slunk out of Paris, humiliated.

His comeback has been punctuated not with a bang but a whisper; with tulle over tweed, liquid satin, Fortuny pleats and frayed ribbons. In 2001 the house of Lanvin—founded by Jeanne Lanvin before World War I—was acquired by an investor group led by Shaw-Lan Wang, a Taiwanese media baroness. Few paid attention when Elbaz—then in Italy, reportedly miserable and designing for Krizia—was appointed creative director.

Now, however, Lanvin's designer is celebrated for making clothes that follow, rather than sex up, the natural pillowy curves of the female form. It is not just the likes of Kate Moss and Charlize Theron who adore Elbaz's gentle designs, but also some of those very same fashion folk who snubbed his YSL work (and who, given Lanvin's habit of not gifting clothes, must pay retail). Despite being anointed as one of fashion's major power players, Elbaz is reluctant to claim vindication. "I prefer not to think about it," he says. "When you are waking up in the morning thinking you are a big deal, that is when it goes wrong."

As such, Elbaz avoids the social scene when he can, believing it is "very important to keep a modest lifestyle to be able to dream." And the life of the triumphant tortoise does not include many spoils of success. Elbaz doesn't even have—or want—a secretary, driver or computer. Instead, he lists his riches thus: "a house in the 1st arrondissement of Paris with a door, my friends, two good restaurants close by and a good doctor."