Everyone has to start somewhere. For example, Barneys New York founder Barney Pressman funded his first store in 1923 with the $500 he raised by pawning his wife’s engagement ring. In this column, we talk with the fashion industry’s luminaries about how they got their businesses off the ground. In other words: the Big Bang, or how it all began.
This week, we tip our hats to Alber Elbaz who, after stepping in as artistic director in 2001, helped Lanvin (the oldest French fashion house still in operation) to regain its rightful position among today’s most coveted luxury brands.
But before the Moroccan-born designer was creating decadent designs for this historic label, he was just a young designer trying to make it in the biz. After moving to New York in 1987, he cut his teeth working for Geoffrey Beene before moving on to Guy Laroche, Yves Saint-Laurent and Krizia. Finally, he landed at Lanvin, where we have been lusting after his fiercely feminine women’s collections and irreverent menswear ever since. Below, we catch up with the bespectacled genius.
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Barneys New York: How did you know the time was right to take over the artistic direction of Lanvin?
Alber Elbaz: When I wanted to have total freedom to create what I love. Lanvin allows me to do just that.
BNY: What were your early days at Lanvin like? Do you ever get nostalgic?
AE: We had more time to think, to experiment with new ideas and to reflect. We enjoyed the creative process much more then. Now it’s just a marathon of creating.
BNY: Despite being a seasoned professional, is there anything about the creative process you still find daunting?
AE: It’s all about the dream and the process of realizing that dream. Starting with a blank page each season is the most scary and low point of the process.
BNY: What’s one piece of advice that has served you in your work?
AE: Geoffrey Beene always said, “Between a front and a back of a dress, there is always a body.”
BNY: At what moment did you know you had “arrived?”
AE: I don’t think I would ever feel that I have “arrived,” because the moment that I would feel that is the moment I will leave.
- Tory Hoen
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