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Lanvin: Cine Noir Chic

A great fashion moment by the house of Lanvin was witnessed on Friday, March 6, in a mammoth warehouse on the eastern edge of Paris.

This Cine Noir cyber countess collection for fall 2009 seemed to announce a new era, where wisdom and discretion are of the utmost importance. Assured cocktail dresses with fallen stack of cards necklines, wilting flower cut bows, perfectly scrunched knots, this was somehow the right shape and finish for autumn, the distillation of the current graphic trend into contemporary clothes.

The collection had presence, whether in razor cut felt dresses with glitter gold trim or cocktail dresses with distorted wing collars. In the general there was a return to furs, as Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz suggested the scarf jacket, part cashmere, part graded mink.

Talk about brilliant staging: a scaffold – almost half a football field in length - with angled lighting created a dappled “Touch of Evil” glow. Dry ice fog, sprayed wet runway and DJ Ariel Wizman at his best – stripped-back, sinuous instrumental versions of tunes like “Fifty Ways to Lose your Lover.”

Half way through the show, the backdrop disappeared, revealing a whole railway depot; track, platform and signals, in a magical play on perspective.

The clothes were print-free, and not natural magazine cover material, but in terms of style, their sheer beauty was special. The models had a look which added to the sense of things being just right.

“I don’t want powerful women, I like strong ones. If they say you have a million dollars, you are powerful; if they say you are beautiful, then you are strong,” Elbaz said backstage, after his traditional bashful advance half up the catwalk.

And strong is what, and for whom, he delivered.

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