April 14, 2023 |
After four years acting as creative director of Lanvin, Bruno Sialelli is parting ways with the French fashion house.
This directional shift arrives as the brand plans to welcome proven and rising international talents for ‘creative partnerships’. The collaborative concepts will co-exist alongside the mainline ready-to-wear collections and add a new dynamic to the fashion houses portfolio. Lanvin is also set to adopt a new creative configuration with a focus on leather goods, accessories and ‘special products’ – which today account for more than half of the brand’s global business and are seen as a key driver for future growth – as well as establishing a new Lanvin Lab.
Since the announcement, the first guest talent is yet to be revealed but we look forward to seeing the project unfold. This new approach to Lanvin’s design process to is understood to be a keen aspect of the drive towards a modern and influential concept elevating a ‘visual makeover’.
Since joining Lanvin from Loewe’s menswear design team in 2019, Sialleli has worked under three different management regimes. He was initially brought in by ex-chief executive officer Jean-Philippe Hecquet, spent an additional 15 months under Arnaud Bazin’s leadership, and since the end of 2021 has reported to Siddhartha Shukla (a merchandising and communications pro who had joined Lanvin from his role as chief brand officer at Theory) as the youngest designer to ever sit at the helm of the house.
At Lanvin, Sialelli has consistently wow-ed the Paris fashion pack, his last collection being Lanvin’s AW23 collection, which showed in March. The collection was inspired by Éric Rohmers’ 1978 medieval film Perval le Gallois and was rife with Sialelli’s soft colour palette and signature silhouettes, with an indelible focus on everyday dressing.
Besides Lanvin and Loewe, the Frenchman worked at Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne, alongside Nicolas Ghesquière, as well as at Acne Studios, where he was the senior designer for womenswear.
The house has seen a succession of designers since dismissing its beloved creative director Alber Elbaz in 2015 after an acclaimed 14-year tenure. They included Bouchra Jarrar and Olivier Lapidus.
Photography courtesy of Lanvin.
