Jun 26, 2007

Spreading 'Rumeur' to consumers

Design house launches flowery new scent

Associated Press

Whether it's a bottle of perfume or a couture dress, Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz pays painstaking mind to every detail.

The scent has to be light, but not too light, he says. The bottle shape fluid, but not too round. The color and label accessible but not common. It's not a formula, it's a feeling.
"To me it is all the same, design is design," Elbaz said at an event introducing his latest fragrence, Rumeur. "To do it you have to think, and you have to feel."

Elbaz is not what one expects of a powerful fashion designer. He is self-conscious about his looks and nervous about his designs. He's neither suave nor glamorous, dressed in a black suit, oversized pink bow-tie, Buddy Holly glasses and beat-up brown loafers with no socks.

But since landing the Lanvin job in 2001, he has made a name with designs known as wearable, simple and feminine - similar to the sporty, casual character of Lanvin's 1920s outfits. This fall, he'll be awarded with the second annual Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion.

The name "Rumeur" comes from the archives of the house, founded in the late 1800s by Jeanne Lanvin. But Elbaz says it is the perfect mix of today's obsession with tabloid media and French charm.

The perfume is light and flowery and features magnolia, white roses, jasmine, orange blossom and lily of the valley among its ingredients. The round bottle with a square bottom mirrors the design house label: a gold emblem of a mother and child.

"It's very light and friendly," he said of the scent. "I think in our fashion business I am known as 'a woman-friendly designer.' I love women. I have always been asked if I have a muse, but every woman I know is a muse."

These days, Elbaz can count among his muses Nicole Kidman, Kate Moss, Sofia Coppola and Chloe Sevigny. In his tenure as designer, he has resurrected the name of Lanvin, recalling the heyday of the 1940s when the house stood alongside Chanel and Balenciaga as top design dogs.

Elbaz says he focuses on emotion; he sees how much tougher it is to be a woman today than a man, and he hopes his designs reflect a woman's struggle.

"All the women I know, all the women I want to know, they are mothers and daughters and sisters and wives," he said. "I see how women today are moving from one role to another. This is hard work."

The Israeli-born Elbaz worked with the late Geoffrey Beene in New York for 10 years, after serving in Israel's military and graduating from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. He then hopped around from Guy Laroche to Yves Saint Laurent before landing the Lanvin job.

This year, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. And he has won numerous accolades, including an award from Council of Fashion Designers of America for most influential international fashion designer.

But the success doesn't dampen his nerves.

"I pressure myself, it's a natural thing. I'm kind of a hypochondriac, I'm kind of always worried, I'm always afraid it's not good enough," he said. "The fact that I look at my work and I think to myself 'it's not good enough' - this is what gives me the buzz to move on."

At the preview for the upcoming fall collection, the clothes checked all of the key trends with hunchback dresses with leg-o'-mutton sleeves, slim shifts with large ruffles down the back and masculine blazers paired with ultraslim pencil skirts.

He presents his spring line in September, but is tight-lipped about the designs to come.

"I can tell you nothing," he exclaims. "We are very superstitious around here."