Now one of the most desirable fashion houses, Lanvin has captured the hearts of many chic followers of fashion. With Alber Elbaz at the helm since 2002, a Lanvin dress is not just a seasonal piece of clothing, its sophisticated elegance that will always be in your wardrobe. But this was not always the case. Lanvin is one the oldest fashion houses around, once rivaling Chanel, and created by Jeanne Lanvin in 1889. Where has it been all these years? SHINE takes a look at the history of the most sort after brand of today.

Alber Elbaz, Jeanne Lanvin, and Robe De Style

‘Fashion is not a sketch with a front and a back view. It’s about what exists between the drawing and the outfit: woman,’ Alber Elbaz writes in the book dedicated to Jeanne Lanvin. Born in 1867, Jeanne Lanvin was the eldest of 11 children. Apprenticed to a milliner in Paris when she was 16, she learned a trade that would lead to the worlds most coveted label. At 22, she set up her first shop on the rue du Faubourg St-Honoré. At 28 she married an Italian noble and had her first and only child, Marguerite, at 30. The marriage ended in divorce, to which she would later remarry, but it was Marguerite that would spark the move from millinery to children’s wear.

It was in the 1920’s when she became an iconic designer with Vogue describing her as ‘The Grande Dame’ in 1932. The 20’s were her peak where she rivaled Coco Chanel. She set up her own dye factory producing colours that could not be duplicated. Her style was all in the detail of her dresses, and the famous ‘robe de style’. It consists of a dress with a full skirt gathered from a slightly dropped waist, with flat panels at front and back, the hem falling a little above the ankles. Feminine and flattering, it acknowledges that a woman has hips and a stomach she doesn’t want to exaggerate. The robe de style was the look of the 1920s for women who could not wear the tubular style of Chanel.

Unfortunately Lanvin had no public image. Unlike Coco Chanel, who was an abandoned child, a mistress, then a hard nosed business woman who had a string of affairs. Jeanne came from a respectable family who made her way into the fashion world through her connections from her first marriage. She lived to work and often spent more time doing just that than being at home. Her rivals like Poiret, Chanel and Schiaparelli all understood that they needed to embody their house in their own appearance. Lanvin never even wore her own robe de style, more a simple black and white ensemble with pearls, ironically much more Chanel than Lanvin. ‘Her image was not as strong as that of Chanel because she was a nice old lady and not a fashion plate.’ Karl Legerfeld wrote. She designed for her daughter, who would take over when she died.

The Lanvin brand was passed from person to person, lost in a world of mergers and deals. It was forgotten, but somehow stayed alive through the years. That was until Alber Elbaz became the head of Lanvin in 2002. At this time, Lanvin was one of the oldest fashion houses around. The flame precariously flickered but never went out, and almost over night Lanvin became what it should have always been. One of the most desirable fashion houses of our time. ‘I believe in covered allure,’ he writes. ‘Someone said to me they love Lanvin because they’re the kind of clothes that make a man fall in love. What I want is clothes to make the woman who wears them fall in love, clothes that follow, rather than sex up the natural curves of the female form.’ from - Lanvin (Buy from Amazon.co.uk for £29.25 or Amazon.com for $53.55), a book by Dean L Merceron and Alber Elbaz.