Olivier Lapidus joins Lanvin

[Lola701]

So to revive a name that is fading, they are choosing an irrelevant designer?
Bouchra wasn't maybe the greatest choice for Lanvin but at least, she was a relevant name that had people's interest.
Before, Lanvin was on the same level as Balenciaga and YSL. Alber may never had a It Bag but they had great shoes and great clothes.

Now, they wants to make it like Michael Kors? The biggest joke ever.
I don't think retailers are going to react in the most positive way. Mrs Wang clearly has no vision for this brand and her ego is making her loose everything she has contributed to build. It's sad because Lanvin is just a beautiful name with a huge potential.
In this day & age of social media, this kind of could kill a house forever.

A model like Michael Kors can only be possible coming from America because they don't have that tradition of Luxury and Haute Couture. Michael Kors is american sportswear. That allows him to sell his entry-level prices items on all the malls in the world and his more high-end line in the most prestigious places.

Lanvin is just not that type of brand. If they wanted to make more money, they could have take the YSL route and design easy to wear, eye-catching clothes like Hedi did but with a designer with that same level of integrity.

They wants to be Michael Kors? They are going to be more like Pierre Cardin.

The most annoying thing is that Lucas, who is a great talent, is dragged into this mess. He should leave the brand...Even relaunching Carven menswear would be better than staying at Lanvin.

What a mess!

 

[StoneSkipper]

"French Michael Kors"? My spine is itching from the very sound of those words Yeah, the only reasons I'm not sadder about this is because Madame Wang seems to be getting exactly what she bargained for... but I feel bad for everyone else involved in this mess.

 

[Creative]

Lapidus? OMG, who would've known he was still into design. My gawwwwd, that's so far-fetched!

And Michael Kors? My poor eyes bleed each time I see a MK.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ If you were here, you wouldn't survive long at all

The sad thing is that Michael Kors is a decent designer with (last I knew) an excellent fit process, maybe the best out there. But he's allowed his brand to be diluted to the point of ... Coach. Now he's known for the horrible cheap bags we see everywhere on the street rather than anything he's actually done well.

I can only assume that what's being planned here is some cheap diffusion line ...

Of course, their business infrastructure couldn't really support what they were doing before, selling to boutiques. How is it suddenly supposed to support a mass contemporary line ... higher volumes at lower price points? Something they've never done, customers they've never had ...

Someone ring the bell ...

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

Jeanne Lanvin is turning in her grave right now.

 

[Cecilou]

https://creationolivierlapidus.paris/fr/ His designs are so unfashionable.. what an exciting new vision for Lanvin!?!! My last hope was for Lucas Ossendrijver to take over the womenswear but I bet he ran away from the offer

 

[HeatherAnne]

These "sources" should be shot on the spot for the embarrassing Michael Kors references. Cryin' out loud!

I was laughing that they deserved all this since they fired Elbaz, but now it's just become a tragedy.

 

[RedSmokeRise]

LMAOOO. I'm sorry, but to go from Alber's magic to a "French Michael Kors"

That is so sad.

 

[GERGIN]

You take a name like Michael Kors and people start to lose it lol. I think they just interpreted that the brand will reach a broader demographic but at perhaps a more tame price range? I will see how this turns out but I have no clue about this new CD in charge and he already sounds dissapointing.

 

[vetements]

^^^^whether is it bad PR, Michael Kors doesn't spell high fashion.
To dilute Lanvin and turn it into a household brand likes MK, please, don't.

 

[dodencebt]

A true disaster. Michael Kors is literally the most overexposed brand on the market right now, even Coach and Longchamp bags are more attractive for buyers. Who the hell wants to follow that kind of a business model?!

 

[Nomar]

"French Michael Kors"?????? Says it all really.

 

[perhydrol]

“There’s a Story to Tell . . . I’m Going to Do Jeanne by the Book”—Olivier Lapidus on His Lanvin Appointment

Fashion designer Olivier Lapidus, the son of designer Ted Lapidus, has been named the artistic director of Lanvin after last week’s departure of Bouchra Jarrar, who spent shortly over a year at the company after succeeding Alber Elbaz. Earlier this month, he also launched his own “future couture” collection via Instagram. He spoke to Vogue today about his vision for the storied French brand.

As it happens, Lapidus has known Lanvin owner Shaw-Lan Wang for 33 years, ever since he was the designer of Balmain’s menswear. Discussions for this position, however, have been ongoing only in the past few weeks.

“When we began discussions, Lanvin was interested by my [Internet] approach. New technologies can be very pertinent for the oldest couture house in France,” he said, adding, “Clearly there is something innovative to tap there in terms of positioning and communications.”

Concerning his namesake label, Lapidus said, “My house will remain quite exclusive—there’s no problem in doing small collections of eight pieces in parallel with my work at Lanvin. My little maison is high tech and experimental.” He did allow, however, that there might be crossover potential between his namesake concept and the illustrious French fashion house.

As to his vision for France’s oldest continuously operating fashion house, Lapidus observed, “My DNA is couture. I see the value in Jeanne Lanvin; I want to speak to the person she is and mine her DNA. I want to explore techniques and detail and give the brand meaning. We must get back to the fundamentals. There’s a story to tell at Lanvin. In all modesty, I’d like to say that I’m going to do Jeanne by the book.” That his 82-year-old mother is also named Jeanne, he said, adds to the emotional aspect of the task ahead.

In other words, an August vacation is out the window. Lapidus concluded, “I’ll be spending my vacation at Lanvin!”

from vogue.com

 

[maxlinden]

popkey

Devastated! I mean, could you get anymore desperate?

 

[dodencebt]

Here's a great think piece from Vanessa Friedman about what this 'French Michael Kors' could mean for Lanvin.

One designer exits, another enters. This week, the beleaguered French fashion house Lanvin announced that Olivier Lapidus would be its artistic director, following the departure of Bouchra Jarrar last week after only 16 months.

Ms. Jarrar, of course, took the reins of the house after the controversial firing of Alber Elbaz, the beloved designer who had returned its brand to prominence over 14 years.

It all makes for a somewhat complicated situation for Mr. Lapidus, 59 and a relatively unknown designer outside the French fashion world. (He is the son of the designer Ted Lapidus, and ran his father’s brand for 12 years after three years designing Balmain men’s wear). Especially because, according to reports, something of a strategic about-face is in the works.

Instead of building on Lanvin’s history as a French couture house, the oldest in continuous existence, one with a design signature marked by an extreme generosity of spirit and decorative ease, the plan, according to the Business of Fashion website, is to turn Lanvin into “a French Michael Kors.â€Â

There’s no question that brands need to evolve. And fashion tends to advance on the punctuated equilibrium model proposed by the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould: A house moseys along under one designer in one aesthetic until he or she leaves or is fired, at which point environmental stress is created, a new designer comes in with a new idea, and the brand heads off in a different direction.

Considering the announcement of Mr. Lapidus’s appointment by Shaw-Lan Wang, Lanvin’s owner and president — “Far ahead of his time, Olivier Lapidus has always been interested in new technologies. As a precursor couturier, he now resonates with the aspirations of the company and will be able to take up the challenges of Lanvin in the 21st century†— Lanvin seems to be at that point.

And given the problems the house has had, and the clear fact that it intends to go in a new direction by choosing Mr. Lapidus, who had recently introduced a web-only couture house named Création Olivier Lapidus, the scenario has a certain believability.

But it does raise the question: Is this actually a new direction?

What exactly was meant by “a French Michael Kors†was never specified in the article, and the phrase seems to have come from an anonymous inside source.

But maybe it refers to the pyramid business model on which Michael Kors, like so many American luxury brands, is built: one with a high-fashion line at the pinnacle, which rains style cred down on less expensive lines, from Michael Michael Kors to a variety of licenses, as well as a ubiquitous line of handbags, with accessible price points to support them.

Or perhaps it refers to the Kors signature style, which combines extreme simplicity in the sportswear sense with extreme luxe in the material sense and a resolute refusal to get neurotic, in the belief that all women ultimately want to look “pretty and rich,†as Mr. Kors once told me.

Maybe it is even referring to his star-making role on “Project Runwayâ€� Well, probably not that.

Either way, given the financial challenges now facing Michael Kors — despite the fact that it had one of the most successful share listings of 2011 and was a runaway success story for a while — using it as a pattern for Lanvin seems a surprising choice.

Michael Kors has been grappling with plummeting sales and tepid profits after a rapid expansion effort, amid declining North American mall traffic and deep discounting tactics that have resulted in the Kors label losing much of its luster with core consumers. In May the company said that it would close 100 to 125 of its full-price retail stores, paying a high price for a damaging degree of overexposure. It downgraded its sales forecasts for the rest of the year, and its share price has fallen by 17 percent so far in 2017.

Even beyond the cautionary tale of the financials, however, there’s another, even more important reason that becoming “a French Michael Korsâ€Âis a bad idea, and it’s simple: Michael Kors already exists. It has colonized a very specific territory.

Success for any fashion brand comes from being able to define a point of difference: An approach to definition of dress that is all its own, and that gives consumers a reason to come to it, as opposed to anyone else.

There’s no question Lanvin needs a new approach: In 2012, at the zenith of the label’s success, revenues were 235 million euros, but in June, Lanvin reported revenue of €162 million for 2016, a 23 percent fall on the year before, with a net loss of €18.3 million. But the approach needs to be a genuinely new one.

And such approaches take time to gestate, both internally and externally. Presumably Mr. Lapidus knows this. Here’s hoping that the owners of the house that hired him know it too.

nytimes.com

 

[mistress_f]

Olivier Lapidus Joins Lanvin Amid Plans to Make Brand ‘A French Michael Kors’

For the love of god, WHY???!!

R.I.P. Lanvin. This really hurts as a former costumer and all around lover of what alber did at the house.

 

[dcmaike]

I worry more about the fact that his designs look like cheap versions of Marchesa and Elie Saab than about this quote.

 

[Nepenthes]

This is really depressing...

 

[Pricciao]

Can Lucas just bail out and start doing his thing please

 

[TheoG]

I personally don't blame him for trying to find a solution to the problems that exist at Lanvin. There's clearly issues up at the top, the CEO Michele Huiban and owner Ms. Wang have been reluctant to invest in the brand for years. So I sort of feel, for lack of better words, these designers who are pressured to make sales for a house like Lanvin that doesn't want to invest anything what so ever. Investment alone isn't the reason why Lanvin has declining profit but I'm sure it would help to have some finical backing.

Something needs to happen but a 'French Michael Kors' probably is not the best business model to follow.