There’s no official announcement as of yet but WWD today reported that Creative Director of 14 years, Alber Elbaz is set to leave Lanvin. WWD stated that although the expected announcement will suggest that the decision was mutual, sources have said the development is because of disagreements between Elbaz and Lanvin’s owner Shaw-Lan Wang. The news comes hot on the heels of Raf Simon’s well publicized departure from Dior, raising those familiar questions about the pressures on designers at big-name brand.

After stints at YSL (at one point even being pegged to be Creative Director of the brand in the late 90s) and then Krizia, Elbaz was appointed Creative Director of Lanvin in 2001 and has since established the brand as a major European fashion house. His replacement is bound to be a hot topic in the coming weeks and we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

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First off, congratulations on the award! You beat out designers like JW Anderson for the prize. What does this mean for you to have people like Alber Elbaz and Alexandra Schulman give you the prize?

It’s a lot of press, it’s money [the winner takes home $50,000], I can build up a bigger collection – all that is good, but on a personal level it’s really important. It’s not just the award, it’s the fact that you’re showing your work year after year and you’re confronted with critics all the time – it’s a very hard world. Like everyone else, I doubt myself. To have these amazing people telling you you’re doing a good job is a big motivation.

You work a lot with wool already in your own collection. What attracts you to wool?

It’s so rich, you can do so many things with it. You can experiment with shapes, stitches, colours. Acrylic and nylon just don’t give the same sensation in terms of natural elasticity – it’s a very gratifying material. It’s timeless. You can have a merino sweater for the next 15 years. I have sweaters that are 20 years old!

What kind of woman do you design for?

I don’t design for one type of woman. I really like the idea that my clothes are ending up in Moscow and New Zealand, and a totally different woman will buy and make the clothes her own. As a designer, I don’t think we are dictators in telling people what to do, we are proposing ideas and clothes.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on my own collection for Spring/Summer 2013 and now I’ll start producing the sketches I presented here.

Do you have any of your own beloved pieces of knitwear, then?

My mother used to hand knit a lot of sweaters when we were children. She’s from the countryside so she likes natural fibres – like me. The funny thing is, I still wear a sweater she knit for my father when I was small. It’s a grey mélange and the sleeves are totally destroyed, but I still love it!

christianwijnants.com

Words: Zing Tsjeng
Images: Jon Furniss

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