Dix Points

Once again, I'm in Paris, switching over back to my old stint at Dazed Digital and slogging about doing shows and generally looking panicked/bewildered because I may or may not have missed a show/appointment/presentation.  I do need to check in to the blog with a TON of A/W 12-3 stuff but first, a treat for the eyes, the mouth and if you can afford it, the body.  I'm not normally a party/events coverage person.  I especially hate it when people email me asking me to blog about events that I didn't actually go to myself, using pics rife with flash, celeb and mum smiles (again, thanks Community Channel). 

This post is therefore completely lacking in those three elements, despite all three being there in varying quantities (there was flash, Pharell, Tilda Swinton and Maggie Cheung were there and I guess fashion people were mum-smiling all over the place).  Instead, I've seized that rare opportunity to bung in a bit of food in with the fashion, facilitated by Alber Elbaz and Lanvin's 10 Year anniversary bash on Friday night.  Apologies if it's a little text lite.  I think the general ostentaious nature of the night lent itself to little deep discussion or studied analysis other than overdosing on words like – sumptuous, lavish, decadent and the like – and that just sounds tedious.  Therefore, picture fest it is. 

In true Elbaz style, as soon as we walked in there were tables of canapes, cakes and champagne (the three C's of a good party?) lined up and down the runway.  The cakes were for pure show but the canapes were all insanely real.  Foie gras on a lollipop with a lick of chocolate, chanterelles and pate on toast and melon balls and smoked samon on sticks were just a smattering of the treats on offer.  I unceremoniously hovered around each table, nabbing three or four things to pad my stomach out for the night.   

The show itself wasn't exactly a greatest hits of Alber Elbaz' work as everyone thought it might.  To be honest, Elbaz could have rested on his laurels and rehashed previous collections into frou frou, satin and silk coconcoctions for all the enjoy and he would still have garnered praise and swooning from the audience.  Instead though, it was a rigorous start with the moulded neoprene dresses and hard-edged embossed leather jackets as well as black tailoring.  It then ran the gamut through to gold brocade, feather boas, ruffled cocktail dresses, sparkle and that overtly feminine spirit that Elbaz has injected into the DNA of Lanvin.  There really was something for everyone in there, which might not sound like it was a disciplined move but then again, Elbaz has always been a crowd pleaser.  Something that can be judged by the seasonal turnout of people who literally crowd mob Elbaz as soon as the show is over. 

Elbaz pretty much got a universal stamp of approval by serenading us all with a bit of "Que Sera, Sera".  Cue a collective "Awwwwww….." from the audience.

The party swung into action with a jazz/dance band Pink Martini (from Portland, Oregon) fronted by performance artist Joey Arias with appearances from Paper Magazine's Kim Hastreiter performing Louis Prima's Sing Sing Sing.  With all that red light strobing about and the giant chandelier, the decadence of it all (I'll use that D word once and once only) reminded me of the opening to the film Bright Young Things.  I felt like exclaiming "Isn't this DIVINE?" in a cut-glass accent. 

The backdrop to the party was a collage of imagery, accumulated from ten years worth of imagery of shows, sketches, moodboards, fittings and essentially, the energy and spirit that Elbaz has injected, in to what was an ailing house at the time. 

If foie gras and pate wasn't your thing, then pretty much everyone could get onboard with the vast array of sweet treats that were laid out.  They were just the ticket to complete this party, that was really a party in the truest sense of the word.  Or at least, my childhood dreams of a party.  Here's to ten more years and another properly big bash to laser beam out to the world from our heads.