Alber Elbaz Is Back! What We Know So Far About His New Richemont Deal
After his abrupt departure from Lanvin in 2015, Alber Elbaz has been sorely missed in the fashion industry. Save for a couple of collaborations and some speaking engagements here and there, he’s been keeping a low profile—until today. Hours ago news broke that the beloved designer is forming a joint venture with Richemont, the Swiss luxury conglomerate that owns Chloé, Yoox Net-a-Porter group, Cartier, and Van Cleef & Arpels, among other brands.
Known as AZ Fashion it will be “an innovative and dynamic startup, meant to turn dreams into reality,” according to a release. “Upon hearing Alber Elbaz describe his vision for fashion and the projects it inspires in him, I was again struck by his creativity and insight,” Richemont chairman Johann Rupert stated. “His talent and inventiveness, with his sensitivity towards women and their well-being, will be of great value to our group and its maisons. We warmly welcome Alber to Richemont and look forward to an exciting partnership.”
Elbaz added: “I am very happy to partner with Richemont and establish my ‘dream factory,’ which will focus on developing solutions for women of our times. I am extremely excited to collaborate with good people, talented and smart individuals, and look forward to also having a lot of fun with this new adventure.”
Given his experience at Lanvin (he was pushed out of his role as artistic director by the label’s owner, Shaw-Lan Wang), it’s fair to assume that one of his dreams is to rewrite the rules of a luxury fashion brand. At the FGI Night of Stars Awards back in 2015, where he received the Superstar Award just weeks before his dismissal, Elbaz lamented how the fashion industry was turning designers into “image-makers.” The following year he gave a lecture at Parsons and discussed the struggle to balance creativity with the demands of a modern business: “I see those CEOs have to manage all of us. And you know what? If we would have a better communication, a better dialogue, with us and the management, that would be the only time when we could make beautiful fashion and a beautiful team. I think that if we inject a little bit more love into fashion and less fear—because today I feel it’s more about fear and less love—we would have a beautiful reason to wake up every morning.”
Here’s hoping that’s the case with AZ Fashion. Of course, what’s exciting us most is Elbaz’s promise to develop “solutions for women of our times.” At Lanvin he made women feel beautiful, confident, and, importantly, happy (maybe this is an occasion to bring out those love and happy necklaces again). What so many women have repeated about his clothes is how they felt fresh, yet utterly timeless. In an essay on Elbaz’s legacy, Vogue’s Sarah Mower wrote: “Skimming back through Alber’s Lanvin collections, I am struck by how much he has innovated, how much he owned, and how relevant his clothes still are through time…. When all’s said and done, that timeless hot-yet-elegant relevance is Alber Elbaz’s permanent calling card.”
Watch this space for more news on AZ Fashion; it’s still TBD when and how it will be revealed.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
