Peter Copping Will Make His Lanvin Debut in January
Designer Peter Copping will make his debut as Lanvin’s artistic director with a coed fashion show at the end of January, WWD has learned.
“This is a very pivotal moment for us to reestablish the house through an attitude and a silhouette, which is still, in this day and age, best transmitted via the podium,” Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin, said in an interview.
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The development comes after nearly a two-year hiatus from the runway.
Lanvin did not pinpoint the date, but said it would be on the official schedule, which has yet to be released by the organizing body, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.
Paris Fashion Week for men’s fall 2025 collections is scheduled for Jan. 21 to 26, immediately followed by Paris Couture Week for spring 2025, scheduled from Jan. 27 to 30. Both weeks also tend to feature an off-calendar sprinkling of pre-fall womenswear collections.
Copping’s show collection is still in progress, and under wraps. “Without saying too much, we will attempt to show a kind of modern couture,” Shukla teased, winking to Lanvin’s legacy as the oldest couture house in Paris.
In addition, the coed show represents Copping’s “first demonstration of menswear as an artistic director,” Shukla said. “The other notable aspect that you will see on the runway and that people will find in the showroom is a more robust and formal elaboration of the world of Lanvin accessories,” especially formal shoes and women’s ready-to-wear.
The executive cited heightened interest among department stores and specialty retailers that might not have carried Lanvin since the days of designer Alber Elbaz, and among fashion editors and stylists familiar with Copping’s career and capabilities.
“He’s discrete, but he is a known entity amongst some of the fashion cognoscenti,” Shukla said of Copping.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins in London, Copping worked for several years in the design studios of Sonia Rykiel before being recruited by Marc Jacobs as his first assistant in 1997 when Louis Vuitton expanded into ready-to-wear.
Copping remained at Vuitton until 2009, when he was recruited as creative director of Nina Ricci, moving over to Oscar de la Renta five years later.
“And so those individuals are also very keen to see him, who is an experienced talent, emerge in a new opportunity,” Shukla noted.
Most recently, Copping worked as head of special projects and VIP atelier at Balenciaga, which he joined in 2021 as it resumed making couture under acclaimed creative director Demna.
Thanks to those celebrity connections, and Copping’s quiet renown, “we have also seen a real interest from Hollywood,” Shukla said, suggesting that could offer additional firepower to Copping’s debut, which falls amid awards season.
Lanvin has not yet decided on its collection calendar in future, though Shukla did not rule out a return to the main February/March and September/October Paris Fashion Weeks, when the brand usually unfurled its coed displays in the past.
Lanvin normally presents and sells its pre-fall collections in early December, but will exceptionally group pre-fall and main fall 2025 men’s and women’s collections in its showroom for selling sessions shortly after the late January show, Shukla said.
Lanvin directly operates 38 freestanding stores and concessions, and wholesales to more than 250 clients.
Since Shukla joined the French company from Theory at the end of 2021, Lanvin has unveiled a rejiggered logo, initiated a comprehensive reset of its product strategy, accentuating leather goods and accessories, and unveiled special projects under the new Lanvin Lab banner, which has already logged collaborations with rapper Future and conceptual artist Erwin Wurm.
Revenues at Lanvin declined 15.4 percent to 48.3 million euros in the first half of 2024, blaming “a slowdown in global luxury consumption coupled with a challenging wholesale market.”
By channel, retail including boutiques and outlets dipped 3 percent, the overall direct-to-consumer channel by 10 percent, and wholesale by 23 percent.
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