MANILA, Philippines - Not even Kim Kardashian could take the exuberance of Fashion Week away from Paris. Mrs. West’s Seine-deep cleavage wasn’t enough to divert cameras from the runways and the creative vision they exhibited.
With Lanvin celebrating its 125th anniversary as a stately fashion house, its spring-summer 2015 show at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts commanded much reverence. As ornate as Paris’s vaunted École is, boasting baroque sculpture and arched glass looming above, the show needed no extra adornment.
Spotlighted geometric floor stood as the runway, sleek and subdued. It provided a fitting metaphor for the role Lanvin has embraced for over a century. The label’s creative director, Alber Elbaz, has always emphasized woman as the statement no matter how much fabric is draped upon her.
Woman as statement
Opening the show, Violetta Sanchez brandished a sly grin as she strode out in an elegant one-shouldered dress, her boldness conveying how a woman is supposed to feel in a Lanvin garment. Fellow modeling legend Amber Valletta trailed after, looking statuesque in a black jersey column piece with just a side seam of metallic and pearl detailing. In cuts reminiscent of Greek goddesses or Renaissance angels, crepe dresses in solid beige or Lanvin blue swished forward underscoring a minimalism that highlighted their wearer.
If a bold slit wasn’t celebrating a woman’s sexuality, accessories like a hefty pearl or monkey breastplate conveyed her power. Lace, gold brocading, and deer prints that shone almost like holograms on trousers and party dresses were less proclamation and more punctuation. Rather than distract, these embellishments presented woman as masterwork, just as sea foam birthed Aphrodite in mythology.
As the likes of Valetta and Sanchez proved, age doesn’t diminish the sight of a woman who feels confident in what she’s wearing. This image is spectacle enough, warranting even the accompaniment of popcorn, which was served to guests in blue boxes before the show.
Lanvin in Manila
While the show saluted the past 125 years, it also celebrated new ground traversed by the oldest fashion house still in operation. Coinciding with the rise of Lanvin flagships around the world, the label will soon find a home in Manila. Under retail group Homme et Femme’s distinguished umbrella of brands, Lanvin’s Manila flagship is slated to launch in early 2015. It will carry the label’s ready-to-wear-collections and accessories.
By encompassing women both global and modern (is there any distinction anymore?), the label’s intensifying presence around the world is necessary. Violetta couldn’t have been a better example of this. As Dancin’ in the Street played at the end of the show, the middle-aged model twirled playfully, demonstrating how a woman needs to feel good about herself wherever she finds herself.