Like the Ladurée patisserie, the Au Nain Bleu toy store, L'Artisan Parfumeur, and the antiques shops of rue du Bac, the Lanvin flagship at 22, rue de Faubourg St. Honoré is just one of those places in Paris a wife drags her husband to. Ever since Alber Elbaz was named creative director of the 118-year-old fashion house in 2001, Lanvin has been seducing chic women the world over, not to mention turning out the likes of Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, and Sofia Coppola for red carpet events.
So while your beloved figures out how to relieve you of your bonus at 22, simply walk across the street to 15, rue du Faubourg and discover the secret haunt of French businessmen, politicians, and actors alike. The Lanvin menswear annex, diagonal to Hermès, is grand, perhaps a little dated, but always imposing, with occasional art deco nods like a gold-leaf elevator and opulent furniture by architect Armand-Albert Rateau. The building is undergoing a minor renovation in stages, expected to be completed in two or three years' time—an effort to remind the world that Lanvin still has some testosterone in its veins, and also a signal that the company has every intention of elevating its menswear to equal status with its current women's collection.
High up on the eighth floor, you'll find the shirts atelier, where seven nimble-fingered tailors produce roughly 1,000 pin-striped, checked, windowpane plaid, and solid shirts a year (as well as several pairs of pajamas). These are not your standard starched button-downs—prices start at $700. Marc Lauwers, formerly of Charvet, runs the enterprise and points out that Lanvin is the only house that "still makes a toile for a shirt to ensure a perfect fit, pre- and post-washes the fabric in-house to avoid shrinkage, hand-sews all their buttonholes," and uses voile, the finest cotton available that isn't remotely transparent.
Down on the third floor, clients including, reportedly, French president Jacques Chirac and former president Valérie Giscard d'Estaing are sized up for Lanvin's bespoke suits. All information is handwritten (no computers allowed) and marched up to the atelier on the seventh floor, where a canvas mold is assembled. "After that, the fabric and lining are chosen," says Felice Pasquantonio, Lanvin's dapper head tailor. From toile to finish, a jacket and trousers can take up to 70 hours to complete. Only 450 suits are stitched each year, and elements include meticulously hand-sewn buttonholes, white lapel seams, and discreet topstitching on everything from the cuffs to pocket flaps to the hem. (Thus the $7,200 starting price.)
Elsewhere in the building, one can find pieces from Lanvin Paris—ideal for customers like the actor Daniel Auteuil who are looking for off-the-peg, well-cut but low-key clothes. Gallic heartthrob Guillaume Canet and members of the French pop group Air also don the relatively new ready-to-wear line. (Actor Romain Duris is shown here in the clothes.) Elbaz oversees it, though the designer is Lucas Ossendrijver, formerly of Dior Homme. Together, they place emphasis on innovative fabrics, as evidenced by last season's washed leather and shaved cotton velvet.
