Sophie Theallet won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award last night.

The ceremony featured a keynote address from Alber Elbaz, who co-hosted with Nicole Kidman and told the crowd, “Success is like a bottle of perfume. Smell it, don’t sniff it and don’t drink it.”

Patrik Ervell and jewelry designer Monique Pean both took home $50,000 as runners-up, while Sophie received a $200,000 check and a year’s worth of mentoring.

The Brooklyn based, Alaia-trained designer made headlines when she showed her SS09 collection on all-black models (post-Summer of Italian Vogue) and then again when Michelle Obama wore one of her dresses last spring.

She told the audience, “I’m French, so I’m going to try to do my best…Thank you for making my American dreams come true.”

Say What Alber: Remember when Alber told The New Yorker he’d never do a diffusion line? And then when he did do a diffusion line? Someone did and someone asked and he just couldn’t handle it. {ElleUK}

On McQueen: Try to break up your Sarah Mower with other important critics. Like Hilary Alexander’s Alexander McQueen review; it’s twice as long and has a video of the show (since Lady Gaga killed the initial live stream for most of us). {The Telegraph}

The Fat Lady Is Not Singing Yet: It’s still unclear how many more names will be added to the 180 that already lost their jobs this week at Condé Nast. How un-fun are those flights back from Paris going to be? {NY Observer}

They All Fall Down: We’re rather partial to the “Drop It Like You’re Hot” but what’s your favorite Falling Model dance? What would have happened to me if I ever tried to put on those McQueen shoes defies all known categories. {The Frisky}

Major American editors turned out for the Cacharel show. From Vogue to Elle to Marie Claire, they were all there, front and center. As I spoke to the editor to my right, we both echoed each other’s curiosity of what we might see coming down the runway.

Then, I remembered that this is the first collection from new Creative Director Cédric Charlier, who worked under Alber at Lanvin for 6 years. And suddenly all the renewed interest made a lot more sense.

The atmosphere in the room led you to believe that what was going to come out on the catwalk would be some highly dramatic. The lighting said drama, the giant wall sculpture background that looked like crinkled-up paper said drama, even the major width and curved entrance to the runway screamed drama.

What came out was unexpectedly light and breezy. There was lots of white, loads of cotton in the form of dresses and skirts, monotone looks and at times asymmetry in hemlines. The pieces that really stood out were the dresses, and a multi-color watercolor fabric trench. Up-close, the detail of the color and the paint-like effect was incredibly delicate and pretty.

As for the drama? That was definitely saved for mama.

—REBECCA SUHRAWARDI AUSTIN

Meet Miss Lanvin.

Franz Porcelain’s just sent us a peek of their new collection of thirteen dolls, made in collaboration with the house and Alber. They say, “While Elbaz has revitalized the fashion house, he, like Lanvin, still appreciates tradition. Part of that tradition includes a strong affection for dolls.”

We sometimes feel guilty about the limitless hours we spend watching television, and how often we reference shows in various discussions.

So when we hear that a designer of the caliber of Alber Elbaz also gets a little inspiration from the TV, we feel mildly better about ourselves.

The bow-tied one is launching a pre-spring capsule collection for Lanvin focused on tailoring, and inspired by Glenn Close’s character on Damages. All the pieces will be produced in the Italian factories that make Lanvin menswear.

We haven’t worn a suit since our first job interviews after graduating college, but this might be enough to inspire us to yet again.

And with all this talk about growth, expansion and turning Lanvin into a “luxury supermarket” - perhaps like a less commercial Chanel - with additional capsule collections for bridal, jersey, long dresses and dip-dyed sportswear, it sounds like Mr. Elbaz isn’t leaving Lanvin anytime soon.

“This is not a fact until you officially read it somewhere else but rumour has it that Karl Lagerfeld will not renew his contract at Chanel and that Albert [sic] Elbaz will take his place and Olivier Theyskens will take Albert’s place at Lanvin. Both choices make perfect sense to me…Nothing is engraved in cement, these are still just rumours you will have to wait and see.” —Diane Pernet from A Shaded View of Fashion.

“A woman once told me that every time she wore Lanvin, men fell in love with her. I told her, ‘Ugh, I hope next time you will tell me that every time you wear Lanvin, you fall in love.’ And she said, ‘What is the difference?’ Passive and active.” - Alber Elbaz, in the Spring/Summer issue of Another Magazine

Dear Fashionista,

The moment I saw this shirt I saw Alber. That rough handed sketch with dramatized eyelashes and heart-shaped lips scream Lanvin. The tee is called “The Crying Hearts,” because I’m sure there are Lanvin lovers everywhere crying their hearts out over this horrendous Forever 21 knock-off.

Long live Lanvin!

xoxo,
Madison

“Designers always say, ‘Gray is the new black,” and the next season say, ‘I can’t do one more gray piece.’ Where does it go? How come the loyalty vanishes? Why don’t you love gray every season?” —Stephanie Seymour interviews Alber Elbaz in the new Interview.

“I have a problem to do a collection that is a secondary line. I mean, you don’t want to be the stepsister. You want to be Cinderella. Show me one girl who wants to be the stepsister.” - Alber Elbaz, on why he doesn’t have a secondary line to Lanvin.

“I took all the bones out, and I stitch, and to get there, you know, it took me forever. It took me six or seven dresses to make one. And it’s time and it’s money and we are not doing it in offshore countries - we pay sixty-five percent taxes in France! It is so much work. Doing a collection for me is almost like creating a vaccine. Once you create the one vaccine, then you can duplicate for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. But see if you can create it for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, and the answer is no. In that sense, I have absolutely no problem with the prices. I don’t think we do it just to do it.” - Alber, on designer prices.

—Both from the New Yorker’s Style Issue.

There have been a lot of sad faces over New York Fashion Week encroaching on London Fashion Week’s turf (now down to just a few days), and now, Paris Fashion Week may be cut a bit short, too, due to the cuts in everybody’s cash flow:

According to WWD, Alber Elbaz has moved his longstanding show date - the last day of Paris Fashion Week - up to the first day of the Paris week, showing right after Dior.

He says he wants to be “easier” on editors and buyers traveling on a more cost-cutting schedule this season, meaning, there must be a lot of editors planning on ditching Paris as soon as the really good shows are over.

Meaning? Fashion Week is disappearing bit by bit. But, you know, you already knew that.

Under what economic climate would it be appropriate to release $565 pink satin sneakers?

Surely not this one.

Not when magazines are folding, designers are canceling runway shows, brands are floundering, stores are going bankrupt and even Chanel is laying off hundreds of employees.

But Alber Elbaz just couldn’t resist and so today, on the seventh day of what is sure to be a fiscally disastrous year, Net-a-Porter is catering to your consumer demands with these. Natalie says the thick shoelaces are an homage to Alber’s signature bow tie but can’t understand why one would pay almost six hundred dollars to look like a bunny rabbit.

I say, but they’re not even silk. In which case Alber might offer me the patent leather ones, which Net-a-Porter calls, “achingly hip,” for an extra $30.

I mean, really?

Halloween is exactly one week away, and we bet you’re clicking all over the place trying to find Karlesque shades, aren’t you? Yeah, we know.

So we thought we’d get the ball rolling for you.

Here we go:

White shirt + neck-tie chain charm + fingerless gloves + black shades = Karl

Pirate hat + eyebrow pencil (for tiny moustache) = Galliano

Floppy bow-tie + black-rimmed glasses = Alber Elbaz

Orange hair spray + loads of buttons + asymmetrical blazer + anything with a union jack on it = Vivienne Westwood

Fake tan + blonde wig + tight dress = Donatella Versace

Wrap dress + teased brown hair = Diane Von Furstenburg

Costumes are so much easier when designers dress like pirates everyday, isn’t it?

—HAYLEY PHELAN

Bonjour Monsieur,

We’re two weeks deep into Fashion Month, and we know you’re incredibly busy with your own upcoming show, so we want to make sure you’re paying as close attention as us to what’s been happening on the runway.

It seems as though your stunning Spring 08 collection stunned more people than just us, having made quite an impression on a bevy of designers, both young and old.

We think it’s only fair you charge a petite fee for the “interpretations” of your designs. You should, for example, earn 5% of sales for Jason Wu’s jewel toned gowns, and at least 15% of the profits on sales of Alice Temperley’s one-shouldered mini. We think you might also make a small fortune off sales of Jill Stuart, Ossie Clark and Erin Fetherston, to name just a few.

None of their dresses mushroom-cloud as beautifully as yours, none of the jewel tones seem as rich the second time around, but it’s clear that none of their gowns would exist without yours.

A bientôt!

xo
Fashionista

We had on odd tip waiting in our inbox this morning and it went like this:

“A store across from Ben Sherman at Spring and Mercer took one of Lanvin’s drawings and put it on one of their hoodies. The funny part is that it still says Lanvin.”

We were confused and very curious, so we headed straight down to the medium-sized store, Unpomela.

After several minutes of unsuccessful searching, we decided to consult the shopkeeper. We tried to explain to the sweet but confused girl how Lanvin is spelled and exactly who Alber Elbaz is. We thought we must have landed in an alternate universe.

But then there it was, a funny looking tee with a very familiar drawing printed on the front; a drawing that is an exact replica of the image that appears on Lanvin’s own new line of tees.

But wait, what? How did this happen? Doesn’t copyright infringement apply to frumpy, red hoodie-shirts? Does Alber know his face is smiling on the front of an imposter?

And who copies Lanvin anyway?

—AUDREY SMITH

Hedi Slimane doing jeans for Diesel might not be the most shocking rumor out there, but it does leave us wondering when denim lines became the new Target.

Though rumors of a Slimane/Diesel collaboration have been circulating for a while, WWD sounds confident the project will materialize soon. Apparently, Diesel owner Renzo Rosso aims to court an even more exclusive customer with the new Red Collection.

We hope the collection includes jeans for girls, too - and that they’re not so skinny we can’t wiggle our way into them.

So now, Alber’s at Acne, Hedi’s at Deisel, and Marc’s already done Wrangler - how about Luella for 18th Amendment?

_blank">Alber Elbaz is designing for Acne Denim!

We’d obviously die over a Lanvin diffusion line - even though we know the clothes would be nothing without the luxurious fabrics and intricate detail that make them so expensive in the first place - but this is probably as close as we’re going to get for a long time.

He announced, “It’s time to go back to a product that has a dream to it. I asked myself, ‘What kind of jeans can I bring that will be a Lanvin jean and Acne spirit infused in one?”

Unfortunately the jeans will be priced similarly to Lanvin’s ready-to-wear, as in they’ll be terribly expensive.

But we can’t wait to see how he works with a material so foreign to a Lanvin runway, not to mention a brand so different than what he’s built at the French house.

Will there be denim bow-ties?!

“I remember a woman telling me that every time she wore a Lanvin dress, men wanted to sleep with her. Later, I thought that I’d rather she fell in love.” - Alber Elbaz in The Independent.