Alber Elbaz
43, Head Designer, Lanvin
By Marion Hume
Fall 2005 Style & Design
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."
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