LANVIN @ AW2014/15 Men Collection

LANVIN AW2014/15 men collection parade the floor of the glass-covered courtyard at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts amongst faceless sculptures. Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver have designed these looks to reflect the personality of each of the models. By affirming their authenticity, they sidestep the anonymity of a world globalised by Internet. This collection, which is rooted in the present, plays on proportions, cuts, materials and “digital” colours. This is freedom, a true luxury, with an ear for today’s man.

So everything is a question of options and choices, right from the very first looks. Models reveal a full cut coat, unlined, as clean-lined as a cardigan, a fur-lined leather biker jacket with elastic seams and an urban look wears a long fringed scarf worn in trompe l’oeil style under a jacket, looking like an ethnic skirt. The straight-cut trousers, skinny or flared, are steeped in sixties style with their slightly flared look. Sweatshirts are worn like T-shirts or over buttonless shirts with fixed collars, in a combination of textures: dyed fur, very-fine leather or boiled wool and cotton net.

A lined cotton trench coat in beige or black reveals a new-shape kimono, made from a single piece and with three-quarter length sleeves. The collar is decorated with a wide zipper,  making it removable and the big camouflaged poppers mean it can be fastened up to the neck. Another high point is a double-sided wool coat. lined with dyed fur, constructed with hand-sewn appliqué to show how it is made. An oversize sportswear model, gathered at the waist and pleated at the front like a lapel, is worked in a new technical fabric: silk nylon which structures the look in place of the cut. New materials delight in a casual box jacket in wool and dry viscose echoed by exclusive colours: beige grey-blue, grey-green, pink and deep black, digital style.

Black and white looks come next, contrasting sweaters in Japanese wool, white shirts with graphic motif prints and matching ties, all highlighted with two-colour lacquered metal safety pins. A wool box jacket, almost too long, is worn with a loose top and very narrow trousers. An extreme look is achieved when a leather jacket reinvents its proportions in a digital blue-violet colour, created exclusively for Lanvin. Highlighted with a graphic pink lining, this piece is worn over an oversize sweatshirt in black wool and flannel, decorated with raspberry fur appliqué.

The final looks have a surrealist feel, presenting elements of the body without identity, as symbols of how personalities are removed. In the form of two dimensional satin appliqués they are sewn onto sweatshirt or T-shirts. Reminiscent of Matisse or Picasso, a monochrome hand embraces the waist on a top, moving up towards the zippered shoulder. A face in graphic profile, sculpted from coloured satin, decorates the architecture of a sweatshirt, highlighted at the neck with small lacquered metallic blue hands.

In accessories sneakers in electric colours, black and white or precious lizard skin, camouflage their laces with a zipped tongue, in a streetwear look. Messenger shoulder bags, new pochettes in stiff leather and the white snakeskin backpacks add to the allure, whilst new very fine silver jewellery stresses the elegance of these looks with their stated individuality.