Alber Elbaz - Designer

[Wolkfolk]

The reaction of the employees says everything... Alber IS Lanvin, not only because he completely reinvented the brand but also because he had a very strong personal realtionship with the atelier. He's one of the very few designers who didn't work with a "première d'atelier" but directly with all the "petites mains". It was like a family. For him to be sacked like that is truly shameful. After everything he's done for the house and defining what the Lanvin woman stands for today. It4s his codes that made her recognizable and so desirable ( the ruffles, the sleek-dresses, the drapings, the excessive jewelry, the colors, the prints, the accessories...) Their new designer will have very BIG shoes to fill.

Even though this whole situation says long about the appalling state of fashion right now. I do think the house had lost its sparkle lately. It needed a shake up. From Alber's work becoming so stale and contrived, losing all its liberty and effortlessness to their terribly inspid campaigns by Walker. Clearly the tensions in the background affected the creativity of the house.

Alber remains my favourite designer, even if his latest collections have been hit & miss. I hope he finds the perfect place to let his incredible talent flourish once again. Frankly, now that he's available any other competition for Dior seems irrelevant. He is brilliant man with the strongest experience compared to the others names that have been tossed around since Raf left. He's more than capable to do couture, has done some of the best RTW collections in the past, he is adored by the press & the clients and is concerned about the business part of fashion. Only someone like Dries Van Noten maybe could rival with him or make us forget Alver at Lanvin.

Alber's talent with the Dior ressources could create wonders. If, of course, he has a certain creative freedom and if he's willing to challenge himself to offer new things. He can't present the exact same formula that he established at Lanvin even though he has an amazing aesthetic.

 

[fashionista-ta]

The Lanvin in stores now remains very strong. I liked the Moroccan collection on the runway, and I like it at retail too. But I will probably buy things that speak of his entire arc, rather than a single collection.


I just noticed that the Lanvin website has crashed All I get is a ! icon. !!! indeed.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

Lanvin en Bleu is only available in Japan. It's a casualwear line and is affordable to mass market. It's like a classier version of Uniqlo.

it's quite a bit more expensive than Uniqlo tho.

 

[gazebo]

They just threw him like yesterdays trash???
No one is safe!

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Alber's talent with the Dior ressources could create wonders. If, of course, he has a certain creative freedom and if he's willing to challenge himself to offer new things. He can't present the exact same formula that he established at Lanvin even though he has an amazing aesthetic.

Agreed. Though I think, given Alber's business savviness, he'll probably be able to make more of an impact on the business than other designer Dior designer before him save for Dior himself.

And I'm certain his aesthetic will move. Yes, Alber has his own codes, his defined style. And I don't think he'll let those go. But with the Dior codes, I'm sure we'd see something exciting.

Frankly, I wonder if Alber is too good for Dior. I'd really rather see him do Chanel.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I'd rather see him at Dior or Balenciaga or ... but not Chanel. Personally I don't think Chanel deserves him. The Chanel pool is about 2 inches deep.

 

[vetements]

On the contrary Chanel seems to be a much better and organized, privately owned business compared to the conglomerates of Kering and LVMH, who will only suck people dry, not to mention humongous expectations from the many shareholders. I dont blame them, the stakes are just too high, and this is the reality for any business, to make profits, but it may not be the best fit for Alber.

Chanel has all these resources to make their own hats and fabrics and nice atelier and all. I will want to see him at Chanel.

Choose wisely and best of luck, Alber!

 

[Fashionstuff]

On the contrary Chanel seems to be a much better and organized, privately owned business compared to the conglomerates of Kering and LVMH, who will only suck people dry, not to mention humongous expectations from the many shareholders. I dont blame them, the stakes are just too high, and this is the reality for any business, to make profits, but it may not be the best fit for Alber.

Chanel has all these resources to make their own hats and fabrics and nice atelier and all. I will want to see him at Chanel.

Choose wisely and best of luck, Alber!

I'm sure Karl Lagerfeld will be at the helm of Chanel all his life.
And exactly this make Chanel attractive. It can be one or two boring collectons but is Chanel and it's Lagerfeld.
The brand such Chanel send a consistent message about what they are and what they stand for. For very long time.
Same was with Lanvin and Elbaz, in 14 years he made from Lanvin the Label which everyone knows. Do you really think that the Young Generation which pretend to know what is IN and what is Out knew Lanvin before? We know and knew Lanvin but i'm sure a lot of young people haven't any idea about Lanvin. They know Kanye West Sneakers and they are ready to sleep all night long to buy one pair but Lanvin?

The customers doesn't want to have a new designer at the helm of the Fashion House they like.
Who wants to pay xxxx euro fo some piece which was designed by one desiger who was fired yet? It will come a new designer, it will be a new Vision, he/she will reinvent all, so in this case the Elbaz fans will maybe buy the creations he did for Lanvin but all another -not.

I hope Alber Elbaz will have Chance to overehelming Dior ( i wish it because of the way he was fired, 14 years is not 3and half years!)
But will Dior take him? That is the question....


I found interesting article in The Washington Post

Fashion is all about change, and so it should be no surprise that after 14 years, creative director Alber Elbaz would want to move on from Lanvin. Women’s Wear Daily reported his expected departure. Early this afternoon, Julia Erdman, a spokeswoman for the Paris-based design house confirmed to The Washington Post that “they are parting ways.”

The reasons why Elbaz would leave are surely more complicated than he or the current owner can articulate. The business was troubled, with declining sales. One of its most loyal boutiques, Tender in Birmingham, Mich., had stopped carrying the collection. Popular culture has been making all sorts of demands on fashion houses, and the designers who direct them, that have nothing to do with clothes. Being an Instagram star is an exhausting bit of narcissism. And Elbaz has not been shy in lamenting the shrill and increasingly coarse nature of the contemporary fashion industry.

Fashion moves at a punishing pace — a defining factor in the recent departure of designer Raf Simons from Christian Dior Couture and perhaps in the amicable exit of Alexander Wang from Balenciaga earlier this month. (Can we expect a new round of musical chairs among these three high-profile vacancies? There is much speculation that Elbaz could next find a home at Dior.) And sometimes there are personality conflicts that can’t be smoothed over.

[Surprised that Raf Simons is leaving Dior? Don’t be. Fashion is a rat race like any job.]

But it is nonetheless sad. Elbaz did so much for Lanvin, and one wishes that he would stay around to do even more.In the beginning, in 2001, it seemed like such a perfect place for him, the talented romantic and pragmatist. He’d had a dazzling but brief tenure at Guy Laroche and had been chosen as the successor to Yves Saint Laurent after his retirement. But Elbaz was pushed out of Saint Laurent after it was sold, after the arrival of Tom Ford and his smoldering aesthetic.

Lanvin wasn’t a label people spoke of very much back then. It didn’t have an iconic silhouette. Who was Jeanne Lanvin? There was no imagery that immediately captured her essence. For all except perhaps students of fashion history, Lanvin was a blank slate. Its owner, Shaw-Lan Wang, a Taiwanese investor, gave Elbaz free reign. And for all intents and purposes, Elbaz re-created Lanvin in his own image.
His signatures were an easy, draped silhouette in dark smoky colors or intense jewel tones. He loved grosgrain ribbons as closures instead of buttons, and he popularized gleaming metal zippers that snaked up the backs of dresses like industrial glitter. He made fashion reconsider costume jewelry. He created big, dazzling, unapologetic necklaces and bracelets that were fun, not precious. (But they were not cheap, either.) Meryl Streep is a big fan, but so too is Kim Kardashian, who never looked more sophisticated than when she attended one of his shows wearing one of his designs.

Elbaz dressed his models in heels, but he was truly known for his ballet slippers. He was the rare designer who thought a woman moving comfortably in a pair of flats could be just as glamorous — maybe more so — than one in stilettos.
There was a kindness and romanticism to his work. But it was strong, too. Elbaz understood that all three could coexist in a single design because they could coexist in a woman’s personality. He regularly lamented his weight. Perhaps that’s why he shied away from trussing women up without leaving even a millimeter of room in which to breathe.

Elbaz has always been on their side: admiring, commiserating, cheering. Fashion needs Elbaz’s aesthetic — but more important, women deserve it.

Source : washingtonpost.com

 

[fashionista-ta]

On the contrary Chanel seems to be a much better and organized, privately owned business compared to the conglomerates of Kering and LVMH, who will only suck people dry, not to mention humongous expectations from the many shareholders. I dont blame them, the stakes are just too high, and this is the reality for any business, to make profits, but it may not be the best fit for Alber.

Chanel has all these resources to make their own hats and fabrics and nice atelier and all. I will want to see him at Chanel.

Choose wisely and best of luck, Alber!

True, Chanel the company is unmatched in its resources. But if I were matching Alber with a legacy house, I would prefer a richer legacy. Though perhaps it would be 'rich' for Alber, who is Jewish, to go to a house whose founder was a Nazi collaborator. Perhaps it's just hard after seeing Karl's work there for so long, which truly seems shallow to me, for me to imagine how Chanel would be a place for Alber and his depth.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

True, Chanel the company is unmatched in its resources. But if I were matching Alber with a legacy house, I would prefer a richer legacy. Though perhaps it would be 'rich' for Alber, who is Jewish, to go to a house whose founder was a Nazi collaborator.

FYI The Wertheimers, the full owners of Chanel since he '50s, are Jewish.

 

[constanceMafioso]

Damn. I really liked Alber's Lanvin (though his last two or three collections were not particularly impressive).

Wish he goes to Dior (though I always actually wished to see him at Chanel) but I really fear for Lanvin.

 

[sore]

True, Chanel the company is unmatched in its resources. But if I were matching Alber with a legacy house, I would prefer a richer legacy. Though perhaps it would be 'rich' for Alber, who is Jewish, to go to a house whose founder was a Nazi collaborator. Perhaps it's just hard after seeing Karl's work there for so long, which truly seems shallow to me, for me to imagine how Chanel would be a place for Alber and his depth.

There's hardly any brand that has a richer legacy than Chanel. Conceptually, if anything in fashion history was 'shallow', it was definitely Dior's New Look and not Chanel's work.
I agree that Karl's chanel is a total snoozefest though.

 

[dcmaike]

What is happening with fashion?? Nearly everything is changing, the last thing that is missing is that Karl really leaves Chanel...

 

[eugenius]

And, many of the big French couture houses dressed the Nazis. But, historically, Chanel is really the main offender that people know about.

I, for one, don't want to see him at Dior. As creative and capable as he is, I suspect he'd fall into the trap of making a dozen-and-one recreations of the bar suit/New Look. And if he strays from that formula, then he'd be blasted by all the Dior customers here for being disrespectful to the house codes. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

From what I gather, he's spent his whole career working under another designer's name, another designer's legacy, another designer's style. For once, can we see Alber Elbaz, by Alber Elbaz?

 

[fashionista-ta]

FYI The Wertheimers, the full owners of Chanel since he '50s, are Jewish.

Yes, I'm aware. Though many apparently have (I'm always shocked how many people mention her as a role model ), I have not forgotten Coco's egregious conduct during the war. She appears to have escaped punishment only by having a cheek in each bed.


I think Alber would do a good job at Dior ... I would not expect anything slavish wrt the house codes. But is it the pressure cooker for him? I would love to have his thoughts on the subject


Given the employee uprising, I'm curious to know if there's any chance of what they want happening ... a new investor coming in, and Alber going back.

 

[Steddycam91]

It seems like Lanvin could be on track to suffer the same fate as Jil Sander after Raf left...just completely floundering and falling off the radar due to internal discord.

I would love for Alber to have the last laugh and do Chanel. The problem, as many have stated, is the workload. It seems like the prime candidates to command such a house (Alber, Phoebe, maybe Olivier) seem to have no interest in taking on such a tremendous task. Does anyone necessarily want to be as prolific as Karl Lagerfeld these days, and command a giant brand until they die (much less two, in Karl's case)?

Honestly maybe Raf did it the right way by just signing on for a few years, showing what you have to offer, and then discreetly bowing out before getting too redundant or burnt out (although many may argue Raf was already reaching that point). Perhaps that'll become more and more common.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Let's not forget that Chanel is Marc Jacobs' dream job, so all is safe

 

[mistress_f]

was this posted?

Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin Team Wants to Bring Him Back

Fashion is fickle, and loyalty can be hard to come by. But it sounds like Alber Elbaz doesn't have that problem. After reports surfaced that the designer's exit from Lanvin didn't exactly come about by choice, his team has rallied around him (even reportedly chanting "Alber, Alber Alber" in unison at his departure). Representatives from the employees' works council went on French radio station RTL to lobby majority shareholder Shaw-Lan Wang to bring him back into the fold. (Elbaz cited Wang yesterday as the person who made the decision to dismiss him.)

Among the revelations from the radio show: Elbaz texted members of his studio "I love you" and was in tears at his departure. Also, the older petites mains (specialized workers who do fine sewing in the atelier) were especially fond of him because he would send his whole team flowers after the show.

Even if Wang didn't tune in to the broadcast, she might end up hearing from the group soon. If the direct approach does not work, the council spokespeople said they have been in contact with a lawyer and may turn to Paris's commercial court for recourse. Elbaz, who had been at the house for 14 years, seems to inspire no small amount of devotion.

nymag.com/thecut/2015/10/alber-elbaz-team-rallies.html?mid=facebook_thecutblog

 

[CholoChic]

I had the feeling that he goes directly to Av.Montaigne

 

[HeatherAnne]

So bummed about this. Betting we'll have another fashion house hiring a designer who will design for the buzz instead of real women.