In his lengthy tenure with Lanvin, Elbaz has been decorated with many of fashion’s most prestigious honors, from CFDA nods to the French Legion of Honour.
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Tensions between Elbaz and Wang have been reportedly building up in recent months.
The news of Elbaz’s rumored exit from Lanvin comes on the heels of Raf Simons’ unexpected departure from Dior. Today it was announced that the famous designer is leaving Lanvin after 14 years.
It’s the second high-profile departure in a week, after Christian Dior announced that their designer Raf Simons was leaving – and puts Elbaz in a prime position to be considered for that post.
Elbaz is credited with bringing new life to Lanvin in 2001 after their period of decline and has said several times that he would never leave the company. He was let go after Gucci Group took the reigns at YSL, and roughly two years later, Elbaz found a niche at Lanvin. Their aesthetics have become entirely entwined, Elbaz introducing a naive free-form approach to the precise couture heritage of Lanvin – the house’s hyper-traditional baby-blue packaging, tied with ribbon bows and printed with an illustration of founder Jeanne Lanvin and daughter Marguerite by interwar artist Paul Iribe, was often scribbled with childlike drawings.
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For his efforts, both he and Lanvin have been the subject of exhibitions in Paris in the a year ago, including Jeanne Lanvin at the Palais Galleria and Alber Elbaz/Lanvin Manifeste at Maison Europénne de la Photographie. Earlier this year, Lanvin and Elbaz collaborated with the Palais Galliera museum on an exhibition of Jeanne Lanvin’s work; at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, an exhibition runs through until Sunday examining the creative process behind a fashion show. They’re practically synonymous. At least, they were. WWD first broke news of the Elbaz’s decision to part ways with the iconic French fashion house, and reports that an official statement from the label is expected later this week. According to rumors flying around it could be Alber Elbaz” discontent with today’s fashion industry especially “fast fashion’ or it could be due to recent disagreements between Lanvin’s owner and CEO, Shaw-Lan Wang and himself.
