EXCLUSIVE: Rapper Future Is Lanvin Lab’s First Guest Creative
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In the latest sign of growing complicity between luxury fashion brands and music, Lanvin has tapped Grammy-winning rapper Future for a collaboration spanning ready-to-wear and accessories for women and men, WWD has learned.
Lanvin plans to release the collection for winter 2023 retailing, with Future the first guest creative for its new Lanvin Lab, conceived to incubate new ideas and concepts for the French house alongside its main product lines.
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“The collaboration came about organically, as Future has recently shown a genuine interest in Lanvin,” Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin, disclosed in an exclusive interview.
Shukla described Future’s style as “deeply personal and sophisticated. He possesses a sharp self-awareness and exercises precision in his choices — qualities we understand at Lanvin.”
Lauding him as “one of the most important and influential musicians, producers and artists globally, his role in inaugurating Lanvin Lab carries a sociocultural resonance that manages at once to be far-reaching and personal, given his affiliation with the Lanvin brand ethic.”
The fashion house also characterized the tie-up as coherent with its legacy, billing founder Jeanne Lanvin as an “arbiter of culture” as well as a fashion designer. Her inner circle included decorator Armand-Albert Rateau, painter Édouard Vuillard, actor Sacha Guitry and writer Louise de Vilmorin.
The brand also noted that Jeanne Lanvin’s daughter and muse, Marguerite, was a musician who frequently collaborated with French composer Francis Poulenc, while Yvonne Printemps, a soprano and actress, served as another house muse in the 1920s.
Keeping this link alive, several of Lanvin’s new accessory lines are named after musical references, including Melodie, Sequence and Concerto.
Future is bound to bring a buzzy chapter to Lanvin, given his popularity.
He counts 24.3 million followers on Instagram, although the account currently carries only two posts, the last dated Aug. 4: It depicts him with his hands to his face, and the napkins under his sunglasses, but the eye goes to his staggering diamond-studded watch, chains and bracelets.
A prolific recording artist known for his melodies, unique vocal style and use of auto-tune, he has collaborated over the years with the likes of Pusha T, The Weeknd, Drake and Tems, plus Pharrell Williams and Kanye West (now known as Ye), music superstars who both went on to become players in the fashion industry. (Earlier this week, Williams unveiled his debut collection as men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton, and performed with Jay-Z after the show.)
Future, whose real name is Nayvadius DeMun Cash, has an eclectic personal style spanning varsity and souvenir jackets, camouflage, hoodies, trucker caps and mountie hats. Sunglasses and statement-making jewelry are a given.
Shukla described Lanvin’s project with Future as “complete end-to-end co-creation” — a contrast to the ambassadorships with mostly K-pop music stars that European brands are forging at a furious pace.
At his request, Future was “fully engaged in a lengthy creative process of research and work in Paris with the Lanvin studio,” according to Shukla, who organized a tour of the founder’s office, and granted full access to the house archives so the rapper could “effectively communicate and deliberate with the experts and artisans who make up the Lanvin creative studio today.”
The collection is still under wraps, but the executive said it would “incorporate known Lanvin design elements alongside ideas fueled by Future’s creative direction.”
Men’s and women’s ranges represent a “complete lifestyle offer of a modern Lanvin refocused through Future’s unique aesthetic lens,” Shukla said.
It is understood Atlanta-born Future will tip his hat to modern hip-hop, with Lanvin noting noting its influence extends beyond music and entertainment to resonate” throughout broad swathes of contemporary culture today.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the popular music genre, which has had a tremendous influence on fashion by popularizing styles like oversize pants, logo necklaces and more.
“The collection is conceived as a democratic range that we believe will appeal to our collective fans and followers and clients across geographies and demographics,” Shukla said, stressing “it is not driven by what we often see in the market as easy collaboration ‘merchandise.'”
“In today’s interconnected world, the strongest brands are multifaceted and multidimensional, and we believe that Future will enhance our connection with a segment of Lanvin’s clientele and audience who relate and aspire to his style,” he continued. “He embodies Renaissance qualities across forms and genres, the arts and philanthropic initiatives, with music defining his culture but not limiting it.”
The collection will debut in drops at Lanvin boutiques, on lanvin.com and through select retailers worldwide.
The new Lanvin Lab project was ushered in a part of a broader reset by the American executive, who joined the French company from Theory at the end of 2021.
Since then, the brand unveiled a rejiggered logo, commissioned two black-and-white Steven Meisel campaigns, and initiated a comprehensive reset of its product strategy. Recent collections have hinged on a quieter form of chic linked to Lanvin’s claim to fame as the oldest fashion house in Paris — in line with a wider trend around heritage luxury.
Last April, it said it would part ways with its creative director Bruno Sialelli after a four-year collaboration and adopt a new creative configuration accentuating leather goods and accessories — plus special projects under the Lanvin Lab banner.
The plan for the latter is to invite proven and rising international talents from an array of disciplines for “creative partnerships,” as reported.
Lanvin does not plan to hew to a fixed calendar for such partnerships, with Shukla ascribing to a “freedom of rhythm, and working in a way that is not opportunistic or overtly programmed. The lab is our way of showing that there are many paths for a fashion house to express itself culturally today.”
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