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As we enter the final stretch of fashion month, it's amazing to note how fast everything is changing and yet how simultaneously nothing has changed at all.
At Lanvin’s autumn/winter 2017 Paris show, I sat next to a fashion editor who calculated that she has been attending fashion shows for 20 years with half the faces in the audience remaining exactly the same. What was most astounding, she continued, was how long they'd all tried to keep a fresh perspective on the same, standardised fashion show format.
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Which is precisely why a shifting of focus on the catwalk is what makes things interesting. And Bouchra Jarrar’s ever-evolving work as creative director at Lanvin catches the eye, and tilts the perspective. She offers us something new – a fresh approach that makes you ponder.
Her predecessor at the French house Alber Elbaz had such a strong, structural and colourful signature that it means Jarrar's languid, elegant and slightly louche Lanvin woman is a 180-degree turnaround.
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For her second show at the helm, Jarrar has gone back to the original Jeanne Lanvin signifiers – lest we forget that Jeanne was a Parisian couturier long before Coco Chanel – while keeping much of her own personal DNA that so many women were so compelled by at her eponymous line.
Precision, sculptural tailoring, a penchant for feathers and a smattering of bling, Jarrar works with the best couture craftsmen in France to create silk flowers, jewelled embellishments and romantic dresses that are quintessentially French.
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The palette was monochromatic, with the exception of several pieces cut in dazzling (and French, again) Klein Blue; the cuts were often plunging, fabrics floating and sheer (with flashes of onyx leather). While Jarrar's bag outing mainly consisted of micro-bags on long chains, more jewellery-like than functional; big enough to carry just a credit card but little else.
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Come autumn I'll certainly be wearing the suits with her light coat balanced across the shoulders. In essence, the collection heralds a quiet and soft elegance: the perfect antidote for these very loud times.
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| Lanvin AW17 CREDIT: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES |
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