LANVIN_menswear fall winter 2016-17 Paris january 2016
“I like clothes that live. Clothes that age with dignity and elegance. A piece of clothing is designed to be of service, to accompany the wearer. It should emphasise a personality, not overpower it. The worst transgression of taste is uniformity,” said Dutch designer Lucas Ossendrijver who has been creative director for Lanvin Homme since 2006. This year, it’s been ten fabulous years that he’s been head of men’s ready-to-wear.
He added: “When I think Lanvin, the first words that come to mind are suits, beautiful fabrics and luxury.” It’s no wonder the studio is first and foremost a laboratory where each collection redefines a style inspired by new gestures, new techniques and new fabrics. From cashmere to kangaroo, stag to alpaca, matt python to technical satin-finished silk, each texture defines a shape simultaneously flowing and geometric, urban and sportswear, designed for the cosmopolitan and emancipated contemporary man.
Lucas Ossendrijver re-imagines the look of this contemporary man every season, combining impeccably cut suits and tailoring traditions with volumes and details borrowed from sportswear. “I began by rounding the shoulders, lightening the suits by removing fabric from the jackets without fracturing the construction…” Raw seams, metallic pieces, washed effects and leather inlay are all involved in this discreet revolution supported by an obsessional rigour for cut and finish. The Lanvin man can be summed up by the fashion house’s history of style and freedom: resolutely fad-free.
For Lucas Ossendrijver, luxury is synonymous with freedom: “a certain way of being, of moving”, of living one’s life, switching from a suit to jogging pants that are equal in their perfect style and quality. An “organic, flowing” luxury that requires perfection in every aspect, whether it’s the hidden buttons or the sensuousness feel of the fabrics.
This winter 2016-2017, there are inside-out jackets, and another jacket in shearling patchwork, skilfully cobbled together and sprayed to create a merging marbled effect. Even the top-stitching on T-shirts are done by hand. At the extremes of tradition and modernity, the Lanvin man is redefined as a living reflection of an ever-changing world. The mix-and-match approach combines silk chiffon with neoprene effects, the thousand and one tones of grey and black that only Lucas Ossendrijver can create, a man in love with “in-between” shades like watery green, faux blacks and inky blues: “I love seeing them communicate.”
In 2016, Lucas Ossendrijver remains focused on “redefining the pillars of a wardrobe: a jacket, a tuxedo, a suit, pyjamas, three shirts, a mackintosh…” The Lanvin man, who he describes as “more self-confident, calmer, more settled”, has imposed his signature, his look, easily recognisable with these lean and oversized outfits, these “touches” that make all the difference, from the gros-grain ribbons to the iconic and infinitely varied sneakers. And then there is the reefer jacket which returns season after season, a veritable exercise in style reinvented: “a defined shape with as little shoulders as possible, a flexible but never unstructured architecture, nothing should gather or crease…”
