The World of Lanvin is one that is Equally Fantastical and Sinister. One can fell the almost Hitchcockian Subtext to every collection Alber Elbaz sends down the Runway! The clothes are Beautiful beyond Measure, but his women always feel like they have some Dark, Desperate, Secret past that they are cloaking by wearing such Fearless and Fearful Clothing. These are the kind of clothes that communicate quite openly... Beware!
Fall 2014 saw that idea exemplified a Thousandfold! These were Bewitching Women, this collection. They had something to Hide but were, in such Regalia, Hiding it In Plain Sight! These were clothes that said, Tread Carefully. As befitting Elbaz's Sensibilities, these were not Weepy, Gossamer, Limp clothes, These were Eccentric Eye-Catchers. All! Clothes Guaranteed to cause a Frisson wherever they may go. Elbaz has a Couturier's hand. That he DOESN'T show during the January and July Couture Shows for a house that WAS A Couture house is an Absolute Freaking Amazement! He has the Talent of the Greatest Couturiers and more so than some of the one's in the field currently.
This season saw Elbaz in Rare Form, Producing some of his most Finely Calibrated and Florid work but to some of the most Flawless and Exquisite Degrees Seen! There was A LOT Going on, Lacy Ruffles and Fraying Tweeds to open, Pleated Leather that was as soft and supple as Charmeuse to a Shaggy Yeti Fur over a Tweed Blouson/Tunic and Skirt on Kai Newman that was Unspeakably Chic!
As we ventured further into the Darkness, we were rewarded with More Fur (TONS More), Tweed Suits and an Edwardian moment Complete with Feather Plumed Picture Hats that Evoked the best of Madeline Vionnet in Supremely Expert use of Bias-Cuttting Charmeuse that rendered Two gowns of Beguiling and Dumbfounding Majesty! One so Slim and Slinky in Ink Blue that it Slithered and the other more Limpid and Eloquent in Pale Rose that was Gasp Inducing! By the time Albaz had ended with the show in a Frippery of Fringe that felt at best Drastically Anticlimactic after all that Edwardian Bias Cut Blissfulness, and at it's worst, Boringly Misjudged, We had taken a Wild, Dark ride though Elbaz's Wonderland that is Lanvin!
When Elbaz is working at a Fever Pitch of Perfection like this, The Miscalculation of the ending of this show can be Quickly forgiven, The pieces weren't Ugly. just a let down from all that had transpired before. Had the sections been replaced, The Fringe pieces where the Bias Cut Charmeuse pieces were and Vice-Versa, It would have been a Standing Ovation, Yet that is again, Picking at Nits! Elbaz is A Grandmaster! He shows season after season that he is so in touch with his own Oeuvre that he can destroy it and reassemble it Anew every season. In That, He follows in the Spectacularly Enormous footsteps of the Greatest of them All... Uncle Karl. And Any way you slice that Cake, To be compared to Lagerfeld on any level, Is perhaps the Greatest Achievement of All!
That's All.
Bye4Now!
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