Mood board: Before the departure of Lucas Ossendrijver, Lanvin’s menswear offering had an exacting utilitarian tone. His successor, French designer Bruno Sialelli, has a more halcyon muse. ‘For me travelling is part of the vocabulary of the House. Jeanne Lanvin got a lot of inspiration from her trips; she was inspired by many things she would see. Travelling is what we all crave, so it was my interpretation of summer,’ he said of his S/S 2020. The rigidity and functionality or re-imagined outerwear and archetypal menswear garb have gone in favour of a more playful, poetic naivety. Barbar prints were a continuation from Sialelli’s debut for A/W 2019, but this time applied to leather accessories too. Mini-bells lined the edges of tailored jackets. The sleeves on blazers came hand-painted in abstract wave designs. Sialelli used a bricolage of references with a boyish charm.
Scene setting: The show was staged around the 33m swimming pool at Espace Sportif Pailleron. Conceived by architect Lucien Pollet, it opened to the public in 1933 and was restored to its original design in 2001 by architect Marc Mimram. Guests sat on bright blue plastic chairs settled in the nooks of changing rooms lining the floors. The brawny sun threw reflections of water onto the ceiling. The invitation was a painterly scene of youths mid-frolic by London based artist Luke Edward Hall, produced in a limited edition of 700. It introduced the jejune charm of the season. ‘I love my job but the holidays are the best part! I wanted to express that, something bright and playful. Really it is about this idea of travelling,’ Sialelli said.
Sound bite: The collection moved through nautical references, ‘as well as a bit of this, a bit of that’. Small items such as the crocodile and pearls worn as jewellery suggested what you might buy when bored on a sleepy island. ‘That’s the best feeling, so I wanted to express something easy and cool and French. This candour between being a boy growing to be a man.’ Colours were strong. The fabrics had washes that looked as if they were sunburned – or weathered by the salty sea. Bells tinkling on tailoring returned to the nonchalance of the House when Jules-François Crahay was its head designer. ‘He used a lot of prints, it was very free, bohemian, and I wanted to express that. Like when European kids finish their studies, they would go to South America and experience new things. So this has a 70s vibe too.’ §
