Glamorous and fabulous – joie de vivre, the elegance and frivolity of the past and a vision of the future rooted in optimism. For Fall/Winter 2021, Lanvin creative director Bruno Sialelli looks backwards and forwards – drawing inspiration from the past, reinvented for the present, calibrated for the future.

Created in a unique moment of global pause, this Lanvin collection is anticipatory – considering the moment, after lockdown, when the world will open up again. It both remembers the celebrations of the past and imagines all tomorrow’s parties.
The Lanvin woman is known: she is glamorous and fabulous, a connection with Lanvin’s DNA, with the Maison’s roots a hundred years ago in the dynamic energy of the 1920s. These combine with Sialelli’s own recollections of the early Millennium – including his memories of Lanvin – to create a new synthesis, a balance between the patrimony of the house and the obsessions of our times.
The mood is positive, upbeat and dressed-up. Evening for everyday. Fabrics are lustrous, tactile and sensuous: duchesse satin, taffeta, silk charmeuse, silk crepe, the glamour of animal-print faux fur. Dresses and coats flow around the body, backs gently caped, lending ceremony to every gesture – a mood of couture from the oldest Parisian maison.

In constant conversation with Jeanne Lanvin, elements are drawn from the house’s archives – but abstracted, idealised. The ‘Jewelry’ dress – Jeanne Lanvin’s streamlining of evening gown and bijou into one entity – is reimagined in brief cocktail dresses, engineered to emphasise dynamic movement. Others are wound from grosgrain ribbon, embroidered with a constellation of stars (drawn from a 1924 example) or knotted from satin like a bow, a gift of femininity to women. The idea of cosmetics or perfume – a soft ‘sugar cloud’ of pastel color – is evoked through drifts of ostrich feathers, and punctuated with shades of powder pink, baby blue and a strong, lipstick red. In gold, the Lanvin logo is worn as a badge of honour, studding bags, forming heels. It famously depicts Jeanne Lanvin and her daughter Marguerite – jewelry is shaped as the flower that shares her name.

Lanvin collaborates with the James Rosenquist Foundation to feature the American pop artist’s work in a series of prints. Finding a counterpart in the LANVIN men’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection, the chosen artworks for women are Gears (1977), ‚Welcome to the Water Planet (1989), Time Door Time D’Or (1989) and Through A Glass Ceiling (2004). They depict the typically feminine – flowers, lipsticks, pearls – everyday objects
transformed into modern-day iconography. Polished and hyper-real, Rosenquist’s exaltation of the visual and questioning of values of mass-media and technology chime with the world today. They have both immediacy and depth.
The whole collection is showcased via an ironic, humorous ode to the MTV music video. The soundtrack is ‘Rich Girl’ by Gwen Stefani, featuring Eve – who also makes a cameo in Lanvin’s film, reprising her rap solo from the 2004 original. Uplifting and joyful, playful and witty, luxurious and refined. Lanvin.