Not since the days of Alber Elbaz have there been so many great dresses on the Lanvin runway. A draped, high-neck, long-sleeve, dippy-hemmed number, swathed at the hip somehow, had women critics turning their heads and muttering “I love that one!” under their breath.
This was Look 9, a black figured silk dress, that got the consensus going. It was followed a bit later by another in gray silk velvet in the same shape—it looks just as good in the runway photo—and then by another in a green-on-black floral print. They all looked different because of their various fabrications, but were essentially cut from the same pattern.
And there’s no harm in that reiteration at all. It’s not that Peter Copping approaches Lanvin in the same way as the late, lamented Elbaz did, or is copying him, but the two designers are cut from the same skilled dressmaking cloth. Both, too, share a sense of femininity that is not juvenile—a breath of fresh air in a time when shrink-wrap sexuality has been making a bid for dominance at this season’s shows.
Consider a pearly pink sack dress tied in with a black ribbon belt or a stunning coppery metallic swathed one-shoulder gown, for example. Hereabouts lies the reason that Copping’s Lanvin has been doing well on the red carpet recently.
Copping’s random beautiful dresses didn’t seem to have much of a theme going on, besides perhaps their nod to the 1920s and ’30s (harking back to the founder’s story). He has also been thinking about menswear tailoring, as Jean Lanvin launched her first men’s collectsion in 1926. Feminized tailoring in traditional cloth began the show, yielding plenty of coats, coatdresses, and skirts with an asymmetrical drape to one side.
Decent and quietly interesting as they were, they couldn’t distract from Copping’s array of dress offerings. Perhaps there’s an argument for him breaking with tradition and doing a whole show that is just about dresses and eveningwear one day. It’s truly his calling.
