(Designers)
Dior, Fendi, Gucci, & More Honored Alber Elbaz Via The Grandest Fashion Show
It was a fashionable tribute.
In 2021, the fashion industry lost one of its greatest designers: Creative Director of Lanvin Alber Elbaz. The Israeli fashion designer, who passed away in April, was scheduled to present his newly launched fashion label, AZ Factory, during Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2022. However, because of his passing, AZ Factory held a fashion show called Love Brings Love on Oct. 5. As a tribute to the designer, the runway show featured 45 fashion houses and designers who created a piece inspired by Elbaz’s design legacy. The list of designers who paid tribute to Elbaz ranged from a mix of established luxury brands like Gucci, Valentino, and Guo Pei to emerging designers like Thebe Magugu.
The show was located at the Carreau du Temple in Paris, where the fashion houses and designers gathered to honor Elbaz. The fashion show first opened up with Elbaz’s signature design from AZ Factory: his MyBody little black dress. Then the designers showcased their own spin-offs of Elbaz’s designs, ranging from ready-to-wear pieces to couture looks. The show closed with AZ Factory presenting 25 ensembles in homage to its founder.
“Tonight’s celebration for our dear Alber was a magical moment — talents celebrating talent is a remarkable tribute to the man we all loved so much,” said AZ Factory’s CEO Laurent Malecaze in a press statement. “We are very humbled by the extraordinary support from all those who participated in the making of the show, and to those who were able to join us for this historic night.”
The event was live streamed on AZFactory.com, Youtube, and Instagram, and can be viewed here:
The concept of the Love Brings Love fashion show drew inspiration from the Théâtre de la Mode, a 1945 Parisian exhibition that brought together over 60 French couturiers as a way of creative expression and solidarity during hard times. Elbaz was particularly fascinated with this uplifting story and dreamt that AZ Factory would evolve into its own modernized iteration. The mission behind his new brand, according to a press statement, was to focus on “developing solutions for women of our times” through staple pieces like T-shirts, daily accessories, and knits.
When it came to naming his personal brand, Elbaz chose to switch the original name of AZ Fashion to AZ Factory. (He wanted to pay homage to all the fashion industry’s factories that were offering their facilities to produce face masks and hand sanitizers.) Yet, Elbaz had a prolific career before he founded AZ Factory, as he worked for numerous fashion houses including Lanvin.
From 1996 to 1998, he worked for the French house of Guy Laroche as head of its ready-to-wear collections. He was the creative director of Yves Saint Laurent from 1998 to 2001, when Gucci bought the company. That same year, he went over to Lanvin as its creative director and stayed there for the next 14 years. Some of Elbaz’s iconic design elements for Lanvin were luxe jewelry, lavish embroidery, tulle, and silk.
While he was there, he also collaborated with other brands like Acne Studios and H&M to bring in new ideas. In 2008, for Acne Studios he worked on a denim collection called the Blue Collection to create a line of quality pieces made from the finest Italian and Japanese denim. In 2010, he designed for H&M and spurred the trend of tulle skirts and bejeweled necklaces. If you haven’t already inferred from all this — the designer had a major impact on the fashion industry.
You can find the full list of the 45 designers, along with the fashion houses, who participated in the tribute show, below, as well as a few pieces from AZ Factory’s new Love Brings Love collection to shop. Each item comes with its own image of Elbaz’s original drawing and his signature.
Alaïa – Pieter Mulier
Alexander McQueen – Sarah Burton
Balenciaga – Demna Gvasalia
Balmain – Olivier Rousteing
Bottega Veneta – Daniel Lee
Burberry – Riccardo Tisci
Casablanca – Charaf Tajer
Chloé – Gabriela Hearst
Christian Dior – Maria Grazia Chiuri
Christopher John Rogers – Christopher John Rogers
Comme des Garçons – Rei Kawakubo
Dries Van Noten – Dries Van Noten
Fendi – Kim Jones
Giambattista Valli – Giambattista Valli
Giorgio Armani – Giorgio Armani
Givenchy – Matthew Williams
Gucci – Alessandro Michele
Guo Pei – Guo Pei
Hermès – Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski & Véronique Nichanian
Iris Van Herpen in collaboration with Adobe – Iris Van Herpen
Jean Paul Gaultier – Jean Paul Gaultier
Lanvin – Bruno Sialelli
Loewe – Jonathan Anderson
Louis Vuitton – Nicolas Ghesquière
Maison Margiela - John Galliano
Off-White – Virgil Abloh
Raf Simons – Raf Simons
Ralph Lauren – Ralph Lauren
Rick Owens – Rick Owens
Rosie Assoulin – Rosie Assoulin
Sacai – Chitose Abe
Saint Laurent – Anthony Vaccarello
Schiaparelli – Daniel Roseberry
Simone Rocha – Simone Rocha
Stella McCartney – Stella McCartney
Thebe Magugu – Thebe Magugu
Thom Browne – Thom Browne
Tomo Koizumi – Tomo Koizumi
Valentino – Pierpaolo Piccioli
Versace – Donatella Versace
Vetements – Guram Gvasalia
Viktor & Rolf – Viktor Horsting & Rolf Snoeren
Vivienne Westwood – Vivienne Westwood & Andreas Kronthaler
Wales Bonner – Grace Wales Bonner
Y/Project – Glenn Marten
A few runway looks from the Love Brings Love fashion show:
Editor's note: This piece was updated on 10.06.2021 at 3:06 p.m. to include the latest details on AZ Factory’s Love Brings Love runway show.
This article was originally published on 9.29.2021
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