Music Artist Future Is Lanvin Lab’s First Guest Creative

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING MUSIC ARTIST FUTURE COLLABORATED WITH FRENCH HOUSE LANVIN ‘S CREATIVE STUDIO ON READY-TO-WEAR AND ACCESSORIES FOR WOMEN AND MEN.

PARIS, FRANCE — Luxury fashion house Lanvin has tapped Future for a collaboration spanning ready-to-wear and accessories for women and men.

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.

“The collaboration came about organically, as Future has recently shown a genuine interest in Lanvin,” said Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin.

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.

“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.”

Photos Credit: Lanvin’s Instagram 

Source: WWD