Creative director Bruno Sialelli delved into the house archives for a collection that nodded to Ancient Egypt, as well as the Art Deco style of the interwar years, when Jeanne Lanvin was at the height of her influence. Here, five key takeaways from the collection.
Ancient Egypt was on the moodboard
Jeanne Lanvin’s 1920s gowns epitomized Art Deco style, but the motifs that define the movement were shaped thousands of years before in Ancient Egypt – a world that fascinated the couturier. “I find time patterns very interesting to observe,” Sialelli tells Vogue. “Discovering that Jeanne Lanvin was an Egyptophile, and that she traveled to Egypt at a time of big archeological discoveries, made a lot of sense to me in how Egypt informed the Art Deco movement.” These links were explored in the jewelry in particular – worthy of Cleopatra herself.
But there were futuristic influences, too
There was also more than a hint of sci-fi to the collection, a reflection of the graphic, modern feel Sialelli recognizes in cultural depictions of Egypt. He was among the millions of viewers captivated by Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake, starring Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet. He was musing on the sci-fi epic – and rewatching David Lynch’s 1984 original – while his fall/winter 2022 collection was in the works, as well as both Cecil B DeMille and Joseph L Mankiewicz’s versions of Cleopatra.
A standout look was all about power
A little bit like Cleopatra, or Madame Lanvin herself, the collection was created with a powerful woman in mind. Look 20 in particular holds special resonance for Sialelli. The dress “calls for desire and attraction, and at the same time it creates a distance in between the wearer and the viewer”, he says. The spiky textured embroidery could mean “don’t touch me” or “respect me”, according to the creative director. “I love the power it gives to a woman – being attractive, but in control of her own physicality.”
It honored house heritage
Lanvin remains about understated opulence
For Sialelli, the Lanvin woman is sophisticated, but edgy too – and always with a dash of humor. “She has this effortless sense of glamour and understated opulence,” he says. “She embraces her feminist and her power with a certain elegance.”
Originally published on Vogue.co.uk