With draping and ruffled chiffon, the look was poetic yet never fragile. With sharp tailoring, it was assertive yet still romantic.
Such was the second collection by Bouchra Jarrar for Lanvin—it showed how remarkably quick this designer has come into her own.
Born in Cannes of Iranian parentage, Jarrar also carved a niche for her high-end ready-to-wear during Paris Couture Week.
Lanvin, once known for dressing Hollywood celebrities in the 1930s, is almost 100 years old—a French institution. And during fashion week, it sent a love letter to Parisian chic.
The clothes were finely focused and the palette strict—flesh, powder pink, black and ivory. Endowing it with her identity, Jarrar also showed her signature pantsuits, refreshed for 2018 in softer treatments. Her little-black-dress organza flappers were reminiscent of those of Jeanne Lanvin, the couturier founder of the house at the turn of the last century.
Ballerina dresses
Equally notable were the crossed, draped ballerina dresses with lace sleeves—perfectly cut English wool redingotes paired with power-hued lace blouses. The zigzag fur coats were worn over lace flapper dresses.
Jarrar mixed in her own rock ‘n’ roll DNA—tough chic leather biker jackets in glazed black deerskin, their sleeves cut off, and worn over silk and lace shirt dresses.
She used the house’s resources to dream up a series of small, exotic diamanté bird brooches and buckles that flew across chiffon blouses or held together black boleros.
It’s the second decade of dizzying revolving door changes, the hiring and firing of young designers by big luxury brands owned by behemoth corporations from Dior to Saint Laurent. But it seems Bouchra Jarrar for Lanvin is here to stay. Talent, discipline and professionalism are the codes of a storied label, and Jarrar’s spartan designs with flourishes make women chic and empowered. —CONTRIBUTED
