How Lanvin Is Creating a Legacy

Upon being appointed deputy CEO of famed French fashion house Lanvin in early 2022, Siddhartha Shukla — a luxury veteran previously of Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci — understood the task at hand.

“[There] was very clearly the need to revitalize the oldest couture house in France," he says of the Paris-based maison founded in 1889 by Jeanne Lanvin.

In addition to appointing Oscar de la Renta alum Peter Copping as artistic director, Lanvin unveiled six new boutiques imagined by architect Bernard Dubois — the first on New York’s Madison Avenue in July 2023, and the latest a 1,540-square-foot shop at Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza.

The retail concept marks a new era for the house that Shukla calls “a national treasure ... but one that needed reframing.”

1. Why did Lanvin choose South Coast Plaza as the location for its new boutique?

> This was a relocation to a better space and an opportunity to create a new retail experience in South Coast Plaza, an unparalleled shopping destination globally. This opening is part of the bigger project at Lanvin, which is to reframe and revitalize a brand — the oldest couture house in France, a national treasure and a profound reference in the fashion world. Our architect Bernard Dubois has drawn inspiration from the Neoclassical and Art Deco movements, two periods that are integral to the house’s heritage.

2. How would you describe Lanvin’s brand direction since appointing Peter Copping as artistic director?

> With great conviction, the team — including the incredible talent of our Paris atelier — has been restoring a certain sophistication and French elegance to the brand, a process that started over two years ago. What’s beautiful is that Peter Copping is arriving at the house at a moment when he can embrace and build upon that foundation.

3. What can we look forward to at the Rodeo Drive and South Coast Plaza shops?

> When you work with an actress who has the depth of Meryl Streep, a friend of the house who wears Lanvin and with whom we recently organized a screening at MoMA; or with Cate Blanchett, who also wears and supports the brand, it shapes the public perception and understanding of the house. One cannot underestimate the power of this town in that respect.

4. What’s your vision for Lanvin over the next five years, and how do you balance maintaining the heritage with modernizing?

> The rebirth over the next five years is going to come from a collective dedication to forwarding a singular kind of beauty. We often refer to Jeanne Lanvin’s aspiration of le chic ultime — “the ultimate chic” — as a filter for what we do. We are at the service of [her] legacy. We’re interested in building a house around the identity of our founder and simultaneously by looking into and creating the future. We instilled a new visual language over a year and a half ago with the introduction of the first image campaign by Steven Meisel and will be releasing the third chapter of that photographic project, called “Character Studies,” in time with Paris Fashion Week this September. Meisel’s portraits — art directed by the great talent of M/M (in Paris) — are powerful studies of unique characters who, in their multiplicity, form a new identity for Lanvin. That might sound straightforward, but it is also novel in a world where the narrative is driven by first-degree marketing. It felt important to bring our focus back to the individual and the essence of a personality. These studies are like a canvas [on which] to paint the next chapter of Lanvin.

5. If Jeanne Lanvin were alive today, who would she most like to dress?

> I believe she would be just as interested in dressing state figures and women in politics as actresses and directors in Hollywood. Jeanne Lanvin had an utter modernity about her. She was a protofeminist. She also had an open and curious embrace of everything and everyone, from philosophers and writers making an impact to an intimate coterie of renowned avant-garde artists and makers. Jeanne was a true purveyor of culture; with the important transition of the house today, my commitment is first and foremost to doing justice to her kaleidoscopic legacy.