This post is dedicated to a very close friend of mine who is in love with Lanvin.
Seriously...her eyes sparkle every time she mentions the brand, she clutches her hands in front of her chest, feigns a slight swoon, smiles her adorable smile, giggles and lets the name Alber Elbaz melt in her mouth like a piece of luxurious dark chocolate.
After the news had already spread through the grapevine,
H&M and
Lanvin went public today to announce their design collaboration. The Swedish retail giant is teaming up with France's oldest Haute Couture house for a designer collection which will hit the stores in time for holiday season on 23rd November 2010.
The collection will comprise womens- and menswear, designed by Lanvin's marvellous creative director
Alber Elbaz and menswear designer
Lucas Ossendrijver and will be available in approximately 200 H&M branches worldwide.
As the collections will be revealed in a film on 2nd November at H&M's website
www.hm.com, it is likely, that the buzz about this design collaboration will have 3 weeks advance to culminate in several hundred extatic fashionistas camping in front of the H&M stores, getting ready to bare their teeth, storm in and rip the boutique to pieces to get their hands one of the covetable pieces.
Karl Lagerfeld and H&M's first design collaboration in 2004, kicked off several more design collaborations. Considerable designers of the likes of Stella McCartney, Comme des Garcons, Sonia Rykiel and Matthew Williamson followed in Karl's footsteps to make pieces of couture accessible to the masses.
According to H&M's and Lanvin's common press release, however, the forthcoming collection seems to be aiming towards a slightly more luxurious approach:
“H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.”
Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin
If the French powerhouse actually did sell its soul - and yes, this is a quote of the friend mentioned in the top paragraph - remains to be seen once the collection will be launched - or latest on 23rd November when I triumphantly hold that one piece of Lanvin for H&M in my hands, which I could save of its tragic destiny of being torn to shreds by the fashion mob who descended upon H&M in order to pillage itscouture gone mainstream pieces.
xoxo
Glamazone
Sources: h&m.com, modepilot.de, lanvin.com
Picture Sources: lanvin.com, glamour.de
The models were "making love to the camera" like back in the days and the usually rather reserved "been-there-done-that" audience raved about the latest high fashion meets high street fusion. Also a major highlight was a picturesque Anna Dello Russo strutting down the catwalk in a pink one-shoulder dress, with a grey poodle on a leash. 
