Lanvin for H&M (Update....Second Collection?)

[loonaka]

I remember when the Cavalli collection came out, I saw like 5 girls wearing not the same dress but dresses from the collection at a party, and I've seen some of the Choo shoes out and about too, but it's not like I've seen them standing next to each other or anything, but it's still a risk you take when you buy something very outstandish and hyped at a store like H&M

 

[Aby]

I only like the paper bag so far...

 

[loonaka]

^ I actually agree..not blown away yet.

 

[isa.b.elle.]

i think so far the black pieces (especially the jacket) looks better than those print-dress..

 

[tricotineacetat]

Support you so much.

Some people are really innocent enough to deduce all those big designers could do amazing quality under mid-priced budget for mass market. That makes me laugh.

If there's no difference between a Lanvin piece and a Lanvin-H&M piece, how ridiculous and embarrassing could it be to design a collaboration line as a so-called high Fashion designer? Less production, cheaper fabric, that's the basis of a H&M collaboration, or the budget would be really awful. You expect to buy a Lanvin jacket under few hundred dollars? All you can buy is similar look authorized by Lanvin, without being caught as a copy cat.

The truth however is that Alber Elbaz' designs for Lanvin are technically not so challenging to replicate in terms of craft, unlike, say, some of Olivier Theyskens' designs for Rochas, where even the simplest dress or skirt would in fact have an incorporated corsetry or underpinning to achieve the desired shape.

Alber Elbaz' Lanvin is essentially deconstructed and whereas a sportswear-constructed garments usually have a more relaxed comfort level in wearing, it also simplifies the production a great deal. The same actually accounts for the fabrics; even though Lanvin also makes use of expensive, washed silks, lace and swarovski beading for some of their showpieces, the majority of goods that end up on the salesfloor are made from (mostly Japanese) Cupro or Polyester fibres, which are breathable, hi-tech and quintessentially more adaptable to real life situations, but also not nearly as expensive as the old-school couture fabrics, which often cost around 40€ per meter and up.

Despite these points, it is quite well known that large fashion groups such as Fast Retail group (to which +J, Jil Sander's Uniqlo collection, Theyskens' Theory as well as Helmut Lang belong), PPR (YSL, Stella McCartney, McQueen, Gucci, Balenciaga) etc. are known to have very streamlined fabric purchases in which the management urges the designers to use certain fabrics they buy in huge bulk orders, in which way, they can again save up on costs that can eventually be put on a higher margin... This probably explains how a company such as Stella McCartney can ask for high-end prices while their average fabrics cost are at only 7€ /m (a befriended, former PPR executive confirmed these infos to me).

So quintessentially, I do think that H&M *should* have all the means to save up considerably on the manufacturing of such goods if they wanted to, based on:

- the amounts of production they can provide,
- the distribution they handle all by themselves worldwide,
- the lower margins they can calculate with, as these designer collaborations are more importantly intended to give their company profile a high fashion credibility that their usual goods would not possess.

 

[tricotineacetat]

Just to sum up what I wanted to explain:

- High end fashion houses operated under the well-known corporate groups calculate with higher mark-ups in order to keep up their huge cost structures on employees, PR etc. and will likely achieve that by sourcing less expensive suppliers for fabrics and manufacturing, allowing them to calculate with higher mark-ups. In the ideal case, they also distribute their designs largely through their own stores, through which they also save up on the margin that wholesale accounts would need to maintain their own businesses.

- Alber Elbaz' input works perfectly under this umbrella as his designs are technically unchallenging to replicate (both for high end and diffusion line clothing), while at the same time are offering an appeal that is at once customer friendly and precious-looking to the customer... particularly under the umbrella of one of the oldest Parisian couture houses, it has a different credibility than if an upstart London or New York based independent designer would design similar clothes.

- H&M (and also Uniqlo) do not need their designer collaborations to turn profits but are using them for the sake of publicity, giving their other goods a high fashion credibility they would otherwise not have. So while these collaboration articles are more expensive for them to produce than their usual t-shirt goods, they can afford to mark up those on a lower, yet still profitable margin, making it possible to sell these goods at a price that shall be provocatively lower than what the original designer goods would normally cost (part of the PR).


My own conclusion is that, while some designers are offering a diversity of products under the same labels, it still doesn't mean that every single one of them is equally luxurious in fabrication and complexity of design. It is well known that you will find made in Portugal, Rumania, Poland, Turkey or China made by the prestigious designers, whereas others will be made in Italy or France at higher prices. Likewise, the designer collaboration goods made by Uniqlo or H&M can in the best case offer the value of an entry-priced designer piece at such low prices; even Jil Sander with her picky taste in fabrics and fabrication will be aware of the fact that she cannot buy the most expensive fabrics she would have used in her mainline and that she has to make some compromises both in collection scale and complexity of designs... which is why the +J collection seems relatively small and 'basic' in terms of design.

 

[JuiceMajor]

I agree, a mother's friend of mine saw this, she bought the one shoulder dress from f/w 2008 (the orange one but in light-blue) and she's angry as hell with this... she said she will never ever gonna enter in a Lavin store anymore. Well... My heart is devided... From one side I'll be really happy buying something that looks exactly from the runway (if I were a woman ) but in the other side... I will feel kind of insulted if I were a Lanvin buyer.

Pure snobbery! Anyway, back to topic, this look amazing!! And good to see more people looking good on the street

Where is the men collection?

 

[Desi]

Wish the guy in the second picture was wearing a Bordeaux colored double-breasted suit instead. Come on Lanvin, do this for me!

 

[lucy92]

is there a list of the stores where this'll be sold somewhere? oi vey, i love what i've seen already... i praaay itll be at the boston stores!

don't hold your breath. the last time boston had a november designer collection was for viktor and rolf. you can try asking however, but the workers there wont know what you are talking about.

 

[lucy92]

the rose photoprint dress on the left on the 2nd campaign image reminds me of this H&M dress from last year (nitrolicious.com)

 

[Serenity Soul]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tvparty
is there a list of the stores where this'll be sold somewhere? oi vey, i love what i've seen already... i praaay itll be at the boston stores!

don't hold your breath. the last time boston had a november designer collection was for viktor and rolf. you can try asking however, but the workers there wont know what you are talking about.

Unfortunately Tvparty, Lucy 92 is right. Not a chance it will be in Boston. Most likely the only two cities it will be available in the US will be LA and NY. I am in Philly so we are in the same situation, which is traveling to NYC or resorting to Ebay.

 

[FashionPower]

Dresses are VERY Lanvin but maybe a bit too much,some of them are pratically COPIED from previous Alber collections...I was expecting something more...original?

Lanvin SS09

Lanvin FW08

...also the shoes look copied from Lanvin SS09 as well

style,modainsegni

 

[Street_a_Licious]

the rose print on Poly is also from Lanvin's accessories

and her necklace looks like those from a few seasons ago, that were spray painted over

tons of those simple things, should shape up to become a really pretty collection

 

[isa.b.elle.]

yeah the rose-print is quite ugly and most of the items so far are Lanvin rip-off...but to be honest, from all the H&M collaboration i've never seen anything really and truly "original"...
cavalli did a perfect replica of his snake-cuff, sonia r. did her "classic" striped and colorful sweaters, matthew williamson used his typical peacock motif...so...originality is definitely not what they're aiming for..

 

[educo]

I'm glad they're rolling out the pics right now...but unlike others I expected to see a "greatest hits" collection from Lanvin as well.

 

[mark draws a map]

good to get copies like these anyway.

 

[balmain1914]

HAHA...

What Alber did was to take the old Lanvin runway lookbooks and pick up few pieces he likes, then do something on it.

So, does it mean people who can't afford latest Lanvin collection should go straight to outlet and buy old collections because it's still chic basically and most of wearable pieces are just too familiar: black dresses, single shoulder dresses...OOPS, isn't that what we see from the collaboration.

From SS08 to SS10, you would be amazed that how many looks look alike.

 

[Desi]

For some reason I feel as if this is the first H&M Collaboration many have followed. Otherwise they would expect it to consists mainly of repeats from pass collections with a few new pieces. Maybe Jimmy Choo gave the wrong idea since they have never made clothing before but some of the footwear were repeats anyway.

 

[ezzine]

I still like what I see!

 

[carolyna]

Pure snobbery! Anyway, back to topic, this look amazing!! And good to see more people looking good on the street

?

Agree :_)
Anyay can't wait to see this staff. I am sure that I'll find something for myself