The Brilliantly Uncool

4 WWD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010 The Brilliantly Uncool By Venessa Lau ALBER ELBAZ LOVES TO TELL A STORY. ANYONE WHO has attended one of his intimate resort presentations, which he narrates like a master bard, knows this about him. On Friday morning, 12 hours before his Halloween bash at the Lanvin store, Elbaz is tucked into a seat at the renovated The Mark Restaurant at New York’s The Mark Hotel — his back to the breakfast crowd — and is talking about shoes. Specifically, the sensible, strappy flat sandals that dominat- ed his recent spring runway. What appeared to be a major nod to the season’s comfort footwear trend was actually the last-minute outcome of a rather dramatic and anxiety-rid- den rehearsal. At least the way Elbaz tells it. “It was a nightmare,” recalls Elbaz, noting that the models were initially shod with towering titanium heels. “We did the rehearsal and all of a sudden I saw the girls couldn’t walk. I saw the agony in their faces. They were shaking; they looked like alcoholic girls.” Luckily, he had the sandals from the commercial collection backstage. “We bring everything [to the show site],” he explains. So off the stilettos went and on came the flats. “Only 10 or 12 [of the models] said they could walk in the heels,” he continues. “But the ones that couldn’t were, like, 37 of them. I got very emotional — not that I got mad at them — but I got very emotional that they didn’t complain. You know what? Damn it with image. You can be stubborn and go after an image, but I’m not an image-maker; I’m a dressmaker. If you don’t feel good in something, you don’t look good with it.” That is exactly the mind-set that has made Lanvin a white-hot label under Elbaz’s reign. As he’s recounted count- less times, he targets real women with real-life concerns. “Editors can hate me; women — no,” says Elbaz. Regarding those disaster heels, they’re still going into production — after a little fiddling. “We are rethinking the whole construc- tion,” he says. “I always say fashion for me is almost like con- temporary art. When does the painter know the painting is finished? It’s not a house you built and say, ‘OK, is done.’” A doctor will give you a Tylenol. I will“ give you a beautiful red coat, and you will feel as good with Tylenol as with the red coat. ” — Alber Elbaz, Lanvin Elbaz, the recipient of tonight’s Designer of the Year award from the Accessories Council, has other accessories on his mind as well: the bejeweled butterfly necklaces and beautiful bee clips, with baroque pearl abdomens, from his stunning spring collection, which featured sleek stretch bodysuits and sweeping flyaway skirts. “There can be noth- ing more decadent than a butterfly, because it flies,” he says. “I understood that fashion was a dream, it’s about glamour. I have to make women fly.” When talking about clothes and women and glamour and the fantastical stuff of fashion, Elbaz is animated. He speaks quickly, and his responses spill forth effortlessly, punctu- ated by the intermittent joke and self-deprecating quip. But dishing about the corporate business? Not so much. Elbaz reveals that the day before, he declined a big press profile because the journalist wanted to discuss “the industry of money and power. I’m not going to do this interview,” he explains. “I’m in an industry of dreams and excitement and love and beauty. I’m not feeling that I’m a part of this megaindustry of billion dollars. At Lanvin, we’re an inde- pendent company — we are very far from this.” The Morocco-born, Israel-raised Elbaz — formerly known as Albert Elbaz before he lopped off the T before coming to New York in the Eighties, where he assisted Geoffrey Beene — arrived at Lanvin in 2001. That’s when Shaw-Lan Wang, a Chinese media magnate, bought a con- trolling stake in Lanvin from L’Oréal. She brought Elbaz on board to replace Prada alum Cristina Ortiz and charged him with revamping the very dusty house. A year later, Wang consolidated her control and bought out her minor- ity shareholders. Two years after that, amid rumors he was headed for Givenchy, Elbaz signed a long-term contract to remain at Lanvin. “I don’t want to move around every few years to another house,” he said at the time, also citing his devotion to Wang. She and Elbaz make an unusual pair. Today, the Lanvin owner is ensconced a few tables away at The Mark. She will eventually come over to remind Elbaz he’s late for appoint- ments and, eyeing his still-full bowl of berries, will scold him mildly for not eating. Later that night, at the Halloween party, she’ll pose for pictures with Elbaz and playfully mock- nibble his ear. STEVE EICHNER ALL PHOTOS BY WWD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010 5 WWD.COM The Lanvin Dolls, from left, Erickatoure Anne Mr. Elbaz Aviance, Sophia Lamar and Koko Aviance. Hathaway “The only way this industry can work is if there is a collabo- ration between management and design; it’s not us and them,” says Elbaz. “It’s us. It’s like a family.” His partner, Alex Koo, is the firm’s director of merchandising. While Elbaz has been riding high at Lanvin lately, with one spectacular season after another, things weren’t always so smooth. He went from Beene, where he spent seven years, to Guy Laroche, where he first attracted press attention, in 1997. Then, after two years there, came the big move: Elbaz was tapped by Pierre Bergé to helm Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. “I got an amazing welcome from Mr. Saint Laurent and Mr. Bergé, but I didn’t feel like a designer,” Elbaz says. “I felt like a son-in-law going into a house and taking something from them. I was very sensitive to that. It was very hard for me. For a couple of months, I had lunch almost every day with another person at Saint Laurent and, every lunch, some- one else was crying in front of me. You see, Clara [Saint], Loulou [de la Falaise], they were emotional because it was their baby. They made it happen, and here I am coming and Lanvin’s Extravagant Halloween Bash taking it from them.” Just two seasons in, Gucci Group acquired the house of By Vanessa Lawrence yellow floor-sweeper, “It’s the most comfortable Saint Laurent. Elbaz was only able to present his third — and full-length gown I’ve ever worn.” last — collection by invoking certain contract stipulations be- EVERYONE IS FAMILIAR WITH THE TYPICAL Guests like Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Padma fore leaving the house. The experience proved traumatic. “You store party experience: wine and passed hors Lakshmi, Allison Sarofim, Samantha Mathis, Liu feel unwanted,” he remarks. “I left and thought not only that d’oeuvres in a cramped space before rushing off Wen and Constance Jablonski did their part, too: I wanted to leave Saint Laurent, but I wanted to leave fashion to the evening’s main event. Friday night Lanvin among the various creations gathered on the sec- in total. I didn’t want to do fashion anymore.” So he traveled blew up all such expectations with its aptly ond floor, tricked out like a Studio 54 disco, were the world — the Himalayas, India, Turkey — and even enter- named Halloween Extravaganza in its recently a cowboy, policemen, a mummy and man with a tained going to medical school, if perhaps not for the sound- opened Madison Avenue boutique. helicopter-esque light-up propeller on his head. est of reasons. “I’m a hypochondriac — big time,” says Elbaz. The shop’s facade was covered in a blush But none could top Janet Jackson, who “I’m fascinated by doctors. If you had a stethoscope now, I’d be spectrum of 2,000 balloons, and inside there showed up for 15 minutes with a mustache, fainting here.” were 500 more balloons; a digital photo booth wearing a long skirt and carrying a cigar. The catalyst that pushed him back into fashion? An article complete with Lanvin-designed backdrops; “I’m J-baz,” she explained as she headed he read about a mother whose son was hurt in a terror attack. a selection of special masks for unadorned up to the makeshift VIP area on the third floor. “At first I thought to myself, who needs fashion?” he recalls. guests; waiters (sporting Lanvin ribbon bunch- “I’m Alber Elbaz in transition to becoming “Look what life is about.” Yet the next morning, he woke up es in lieu of ties) passing out confections like Janet Jackson.” with the thought that fashion makes women feel good. “A doc- green apple cotton candy, mini donuts and Anne Hathaway arrived with boyfriend tor will give you a Tylenol,” he says. “I will give you a beauti- limoncello popsicles; bars galore, and more Adam Shulman and had a particularly eso- ful red coat, and you will feel as good with Tylenol as with confetti than a New Year’s Eve popper. teric take on her leopard Lanvin jumpsuit and the red coat.” “I love Halloween. I love the fun, I love the beaked mask ensemble. Though the designer calls the whole YSL incident a happy part of it, it’s kind of unserious, which is not “I feel like I’m channeling Sigourney “scar in my heart,” he harbors no ill feelings toward then- unlike me,” said Alber Elbaz, who was a self-de- Weaver’s character’s soul from ‘The Ice Storm,’” Saint Laurent chief executive officer Mark Lee, now ceo of scribed “pussycat” in a crystal encrusted mask with she said.

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