Ed Letter.(fashion designer Alber Elbaz)

Letter from the Editor: March '07

French Twist

Ihave a jacket made of black lace, fragile as spun sugar, with a knit band at the waist and a bold zipper in front. IOve probably worn it too often, but I canOt bring myself to put it in storage until itOs officially vintage, not just old. When I tried on the jacket at the Lanvin boutique in Paris, the designer, Alber Elbaz, happened to have wandered in from his studio. Alber fussed over me, fluffing the jacket, draping ropes of pearls around my neck, and saying lovely words of encouragement. It was intoxicatingNand, ultimately, expensive. It was also entirely worth it, especially when I amortize that bit of lace over years of happy wearings. ElbazOs clothes for Lanvin are beautiful, a word that is often used pejoratively in fashion as a synonym for bland, predictable, or, even worse, commercial. OIf, God forbid, you do a commercial collection, it means that youOre not talented,O Elbaz says in an interview in this monthOs issue of Allure. OIf you do some sort of craziness, then a lot of the editors are

fainting from the creativity. But that is the easiest thing to do. Every student first year at FIT can do. You do dresses in paper, you do dresses in plasticNeasy. Now take a dream

and take reality, and try ...