Lanvin S/S 2018

Four male models facing the camera at a fashion week wearing bright clothes

Lanvin S/S 2018.

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Mood board: A vital ingredient of the fashion show has been missing since the introduction of the iPhone 6+. Now, as the models complete their finale walk, the designer steps out not to rapturous applause, but to a sea of phones recording every second for virtual prosperity. Instead of excitement, there is an odd lethargy. Dramatic staging has become vital too as each of us look for the moment to share live into the pockets of millions (Rick Owens won on that front). This digital shift in our reality hasn’t passed Ossendrijver by. With his diverse S/S 2018 collection for Lanvin, he asked, ‘How can we continue to be creative in these chaotic times?’

Scene setting: The show was held in a more intimate setting than usual. Normally, the brand fills the impenetrable Palais de Tokyo with bright light and towering tiered seating. For S/S 2018, the lights were lower as guests entered a blue-tinged room; the energy felt tighter in reaction, perhaps, to information overload. The boyish models dashed diagonally across the catwalk, sometimes clashing in the middle, wearing a rapid succession of twisted, hybrid sports-utility looks.

Best in show: The collection brought together workwear and tailoring. Suit jackets were made in traditional clothing factories; hardy fabric jackets were spliced with classic Prince of Wales check suiting sleeves. Japanese cotton jumpsuits were worn under more formal coats. Under a nylon parka, zips turned fishing-inspired shorts into trousers. Ossendrijver’s design process for S/S 2018 embodied this sense of moving from one thing to the next and working with it all – swiping right, then left, then right again.

three male models at a fashion week wearing clothes designed by Lanvin — Lanvin S/S 2018.

torso shot of three male models at a fashion week with — Lanvin S/S 2018.

three male models at a fashion week, two wearing blue jackets and one wearing a black blazer — Lanvin S/S 2018.

three male models at a fashion week wearing casual clothing — Lanvin S/S 2018.

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.