Showed on the outskirts of Paris in a Brutalist building that houses the National Dance Center, the Lanvin’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection is entitled ‘’Beach Birds’’ after a 1993 choreography by Merce Cunningham, where each dancer performed to their tempo, like a flock of birds enjoying themselves on the seashore.
But, the real inspiration for the show was Corto Maltese, Hugo Pratt’s comic book hero. Corto with his craggy beauty, his officer’s coat, his insatiable curiosity. But Corto shaken up by contemporary touches, by skateboarders as documented by Hugh Holland, the pioneer photographer in 1970’s California, free-wheeling dudes with their sun-scorched hair, sharks teeth around their necks, hanging out on beaches around the world – another reference to Beach Birds.
In the fluent imaginary world of Bruno Sialelli, women always have a place among men. They wrap themselves in coat-capes with trumpet sleeves and Prince of Wales checks, or long, inordinately flowing dresses with ethereal flounces, pine cone-shaped minaudières on their wrists.
©Lanvin
