EXCLUSIVE: Lanvin Unveils New Store Concept on Madison Avenue
Lanvin’s latest boutique on New York’s Madison Avenue introduces a new pared-down design concept that subtly references Art Deco and Neoclassical design.
The 2,150-square-foot unit at No. 855, which opens to the public on Thursday, marks the latest step in an aesthetic reset initiated last year, and the first step in a measured retail expansion phase.
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The French fashion house plans to open new-look locations in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, in September; Bal Harbour, Florida, in November, and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, in the first quarter of 2024.
The new Madison Avenue location brings to 29 the number of freestanding Lanvin boutiques in the world, and telegraphs a quieter brand of chic.
“As the house is being repositioned and its heritage of French sophistication refreshed, it was important for the brand’s retail expression to reflect a new attitude,” said Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin, noting the corner location at 71st Street is almost twice as big as the brand’s previous location on Madison Avenue.
According to the executive, “a new aesthetic proposal for the physical environment and an evolved ethic of high-touch client service are essential ingredients in revitalizing the heart of the maison, returning to what Jeanne Lanvin herself called ‘le chic ultime.'”
Lanvin entrusted Belgian architect Bernard Dubois to apply his stark, yet scenographic approach to designing interiors.
Dubois created a tonal environment of spare but precise architectural features such as enfilades, architraves and columns. Ridged walls — like curtains frozen in time — exemplify the restrained approach to ornamentation.
“The drama in his work is controlled and express less in broad or grand gestures and more in scale, volume, the depth and relief in his compositions,” Shukla commented.
Located on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 71st Street, the Lanvin shop is considered a flagship and a new retail concept for the luxury that will be reflected in its upcoming stores.
The flagship is refined, lightly merchandised and monochromatic in a beige tone throughout, enabling all the fashion and accessories to project. “In retail, the architecture needs to work with the product. It doesn’t need to compete with the product,” said Dubois, whose eponymous firm is based in Brussels and Paris. “In my projects, I very often work in monochromatic materials.”
Touring the new store, Dubois described the space as “Neoclassic mixed with Art Deco elements” in particular pointing to the hammered brass fixtures in a bronze finish. The textured metallic look is repeated in the mirrors.
The shop, being significantly larger than the former Lanvin store which was just a few doors south on Madison, is neatly organized into four areas Dubois referred to as “salons.” The first, just past the entrance, houses leather goods and jewelry; to the right is the menswear area; further in, there’s the area for women’s ready-to-wear, shoes and additional accessories, and in the back of the store, evening gowns are displayed and there’s a private area for the “VICS,” as Dubois mentioned, the very important clients, dedicated to formal and occasion dressing, including a new Edition Soir capsule debuting for fall retailing.
The interior is also marked by padded fabric walls; built-in white wool area rugs; limestone floor tiles; spotlights partially embedded in the ceiling; three huge front windows, each 188 inches tall, and fluted Marmorino plaster backdrops to the display shelves. Marmorino plaster is a mix of natural limestone, powdered marble and fine sand.
The new boutique will also house the forthcoming Lanvin Lab collection that will kick off with Grammy-winning rapper Future as the first guest creative to sign a collaborative collection. Lab was established to incubate new ideas and concepts for the French house alongside its main product lines.
The new Lanvin Lab project was ushered in a part of a broader reset by Shukla, an American executive who joined the French company from Theory at the end of 2021.
Since then, the brand unveiled a rejiggered logo, commissioned two black-and-white Steven Meisel campaigns, and initiated a comprehensive reset of its product strategy. Recent collections have hinged on a quieter form of chic linked to Lanvin’s claim to fame as the oldest fashion house in Paris — in line with a wider trend around heritage luxury.
Last April, it said it would part ways with its creative director Bruno Sialelli after a four-year collaboration and adopt a new creative configuration accentuating leather goods and accessories — plus special projects under the Lanvin Lab banner.
Lanvin previously operated separate men’s and women’s boutiques on Madison Avenue, and opened its first Manhattan location in 2010 under then-creative director Alber Elbaz.
In the near term, Lanvin plans to develop its retail footprint in the U.S., Middle East and Asia Pacific. “But we remain open to opportunities around the world, given our modest footprint,” Shukla said.
He declined to give any precise cadence for its retail expansion, saying only “our ambitions are to maintain a strong presence in key retail markets globally and to strategically and responsibly expand the footprint as we grow.”
Shukla said Lanvin selected Dubois because “he shares our enthusiasm for what is a remarkably unique tradition of interiors and decoration at Lanvin, born over 100 years ago when Jeanne Lanvin was collaborating with the finest architects and designers of the era, and which to this day distinguishes the maison from its contemporaries.”
In the 1920s and ’30s, Jeanne Lanvin collaborated with prominent Art Deco architects and designers of the era, such as Eugène Printz, who designed her office, which still exists preserved in the state she left it at Lanvin’s Paris headquarters, he noted.
For the new Madison Avenue flagship, Dubois said some elements of founder Jeanne Lanvin’s history were inspirational, such as her own bathroom, which is on permanent display at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris; the entrance of her house, and her relationship with French furniture-maker Armand Albert Rateau. The Madison Avenue shop’s four fitting rooms are outfitted with seats designed by Rateau.
He also took some cues from early 20th-century architects such as Auguste Perret and Eckart Muthesius.
“Whether we do retail, residential or hospitality, materials and colors need to be calibrated very carefully,” according to Dubois. “The architecture has to be strong and present, but also be able to be a background for clothes and help them stand out in their environment.”
Dubois has also designed retail spaces for Aesop, Icicle, Carven and Courrèges, in addition to residential projects.
“When I develop a concept with a brand for a store, I look at the brand’s history and personality,” he explained. “The goal is to develop a new architectural language that gets inspired by the brand’s DNA, but sometimes not using existing elements.
“As an architect, I’m interested in places that are well designed, well executed, have an interesting personality,” Dubois added.
— With contributions by David Moin (New York)
Launch Gallery: Inside the New Madison Ave Lanvin Store
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