TRIBUTE TO ALBER ELBAZ

At the end of the Paris fashion week, forty designers presented their interpretation of Alber Elbaz's creativity. Demna Gvasalia, Virgil Abloh, Donatella Versace, Nicolas Ghesquière, Thebe Magugu, Vivienne Westwood, Alessandro Michele, Glenn Martens, Grace Wales Bonner, Jean Paul Gaultier, are some of the forty-four names in fashion who have worked to produce a collection in homage to Alber Elbaz, the brilliant designer who passed away at just 59 years old, shortly after the presentation of his new inclusive project AZ Factory. The show-event, entitled Love Brings Love, is inspired by the Theater of Fashion exhibition held in 1945, when sixty couturiers of the time, Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain and Cristóbal Balenciaga among others, gathered in solidarity at the end of the Second World War to revive fashion."Love brings love" was the mantra of Elbaz, who has always dreamed of organizing a modern reinterpretation of this event. The show closed with the AZ Factory design collective’s powerful tribute of their own, again riffing on the founder’s signature looks

ADDIO ALBER ELBAZ

Alber Elbaz è morto sabato, a soli 59 anni in un ospedale di Parigi. Sono ancora ignote le cause del decesso, ma secondo il quotidiano israeliano Hareetz, lo stilista sarebbe morto per le conseguenze del Covid. La sua morte è stata confermata dalla Compagnie Financière Richemont, suo socio in joint venture in AZ Factory, la sua ultima avventura nella moda. 

Elbaz, che è nato a Casablanca, in Marocco, ha iniziato la sua carriera lavorando in un piccolo negozio di sartoria nel Garment District di New York. Trasferitosi a Israele ha studiato al Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, a seguito di una iscrizione obbligatoria di tre anni nelle Forze di Difesa israeliane, prima di trasferirsi a New York nel 1984. E ‘stato assistente di Geoffrey Beene fino al 1996, accreditandogli il merito di avergli fornito una formazione approfondita del design della moda, per poi prendere il timone di Guy Laroche a Parigi. Dopo poco più di un anno a Guy Laroche, diventa direttore creativo per la linea ready-to-wear di abbigliamento femminile di Yves Saint Laurent ‘s’ Rive Gauche ‘quando, dopo tre stagioni, è stato sostituito da Tom Ford a seguito dell’acquisizione dell’etichetta al Gucci Group. Prima di entrare in Lanvin nel 2001, Albez ha lavorato per una sola stagione al marchio, all’epoca ancora italaino, Krizia. Ma Elbaz verrà ricordato soprattutto per il suo immenso lavoro per la maison Lanvin, di cui è stato direttore creativo dal 2001 al 2015 e che grazie alla sua abilità e ad suo estro creativo è riuscito a rilanciare. Ricordo che quando Elbaz lasciò il brand che ha rianimato lasciò l'intero mondo della moda esterrefatto.

Indimenticabile la sua bellissima ultima collezione disegnata per la primavera/estate 2016 che vedeva protagonisti preziosi abiti ispirati al red carpet. Dopo una pausa di cinque anni dalla sua estromissione da Lanvin ha lanciato pochi mesi fa la start up AZ Factory. "La mia fabbrica dei sogni vuole essere il luogo dell'autenticità. Il nostro non è un incubatore ma una fucina di cose reali, con il sogno come punto di partenza e il prodotto come punto di arrivo ”, dichiarò per il lancio del brand. 

La moda passa, ma la sua grandezza rimarrà per sempre, indimenticabile Alber Elbaz.

Di seguito alcuni indimenticabili look di Elbaz per Lanvin:

AZ FACTORY : THE NEW PROJECT BY ALBER ELBAZ

In an article of mine a couple of years ago I wondered how it was possible that a talented designer like Alber Elbaz was out of work. Finally these days the Israeli designer presented his new project: AZ Factory. Alber Elbaz, who made his name at storied fashion houses including Yves Saint Laurent and spent a 14-year spell at Lanvin, marked AZ Factory’s global launch with a 25-minute film, Show Fashion, aired Tuesday night on Haute Couture’s online platform, AZ Factory’s website and YouTube. AZ Factory is making its debut exclusively at Farfetch, Net-a-Porter and the brand’s website with the first product story centred around a little black dress (11 versions of the little black dress) from engineered knitwear. All of it is made with what Mr. Elbaz calls “Anatoknit,” a ribbed knit with ergonomic lines of 13 different tensions that constrain and release for maximum movement and security, creating support for the back almost like an orthopedic belt. It took him seven months to get it right. There is a polo style and one with giant, structured sleeves and one with a big statement bow that can be buttoned on and off; portrait necklines and square necks and symmetric necks. All of them close with gold zippers (one of Mr. Elbaz’s former signatures was the visible zip) with a long matching loop like the pull on a scuba suit so the wearer can manipulate it no matter where on the garment it is, and doesn’t have to ask anyone else for help. Later product lines include colourful dresses and €455 “pointy sneaks”. Prices start at €210 and sizes span XXS to XXXXL. After that comes what Mr. Elbaz calls “switchwear” — that is, primary-colored bubble skirts and tunic T-shirts and ball skirts and double-breasted jackets and hoodies with the drape of a bubble shade. They’re all made from recycled polyester that looks like duchesse satin that can be pulled on and off over leggings and T-shirts for a meeting or a lunch or a gala event. Plus seven pajama sets by seven artists celebrating kissing, dancing, hugging and other celebrations of human tactility. And after that comes a group of what look like classic brocades and piqués — tennis dresses and tuxedo suits and strapless columns — all of which are actually made from a nylon microfiber yarn. Mr. Elbaz discovered the yarn, called Nylstar (96 filaments in a single thread), at a yarn laboratory in Spain and then had it woven by a company in Amsterdam to create the three-dimensional effect of opulence. Except that, since it’s actually technical, it can be crushed and packed and sat upon, and yet all the wrinkles shake out. Everywhere: a “sneaker pump” (a sneaker with an elongated pointy toe like a court shoe). This is “a factory and a laboratory starting small”, Elbaz says in the film. “Can tradition and technology coexist? Is fashion still relevant today? The answer is a big, big yes. When things are not great. We need fashion.” Alber Elbaz in 2019 found a home at Richemont, with the AZ factory  project, where he says he is preparing a "dream factory" that rebels against fashion cycles, automatic collections made by algorithms, the fear of not being liked. “My dream factory wants to be the place of authenticity. Ours is not an incubator but a forge of real things, with the dream as the starting point and the product as the arrival point ”, he declared.

FASHION DESIGNER TALENTUOSI E DISOCCUPATI:IL MIO ARTICOLO SU L.B.

Chi sono gli stilisti, alcuni anche molto talentuosi, che da un po' di tempo sono senza lavoro?
Il mio articolo su Ladyblitz:
https://www.ladyblitz.it/moda/fashion-designer-disoccupati-1677605/