Heritage in Motion, Elegance Reimagined

Peter Copping steps into his second season at Lanvin with an earnest reverence for the house's past, but SS26 is not about repeating history—it’s about reshaping it. From the moment the runway opened, there was an archival hush: the gown-robes of the 1920s, robe de style silhouettes, dusty blues that feel stained with memory, and ribbon work that suggests both restraint and escape. Yet beneath this homage pulses a modern heartbeat—a softness, a looseness, and moments of unexpected structural daring that make Lanvin feel alive again.

At the core of SS26 is the robe de style, that mid-1920s silhouette heavy with panniers, where wide skirts meet fitted bodices—a silhouette reinterpreted in silk crêpes and washed silks that feel lived-in rather than museum-pristine. Copping washes archival pieces to bring a sense of age, of wear, of life; that is part of the collection's gift.

The blue—Lanvin Blue—is back in force. Not as a single note, but in shades, washes, and accents. It returns not merely as a signature color, but as an emotional tone: serenity, softness, something quietly regal.

Other silhouettes offer contrast: sinuous knit dresses loosely draped; scarves turned into prints that fold into one another; tailoring rethought with relaxed proportions; deconstructed jackets, linings turned outwards to highlight construction; grosgrain ribbons freed from function to become ornament.

The craftsmanship is quietly bold: archival embroideries reimagined as directional prints; cabochons veiled in chiffon; ribbon-fringes that both tether and liberate; dresses and coats with elements of deconstruction so that what is usually hidden—the inside, the lining, the seam—becomes part of the visual story.

The texture palette shifts between the fluid and the structured: flowing silks, scarf prints, drapes, juxtaposed with sharp tailoring, ribbon motifs, and menswear elements like double-breasted checks and long dusters. The menswear pieces mirror the womenswear in sensitivity: relaxed tailoring that still carries weight, elegance without stiffness.

There is a duality to this collection: preservation and transformation. Lanvin SS26 feels like a collection as an elegy and as a manifesto. Copping looks back to heritage not to replicate but to inflect—to let time's passage be visible in wash, in softness, in exaggeration of forms.

The mood is gentler than flash; it is about reverie. The pieces feel like things you might inherit, wear, pass on. They are not loud; they are resonant. The "fade to grey" remix on the soundtrack signals this liminal space between present and past, color and absence.

Lanvin's history is central, but not suffocating. Its roots — the robe de style, the blues, the ribbon work — provide texture, not costume. The unveiling of inner seams, linings, the emphasis on fabric aging—this gives the garments character, layers of meaning. Heavy gowns alongside casual tailoring; structured coats with soft dresses; elegance that admits ease. Men's and women's wear talk to each other. Not in mimicry, but in echo. Shared motifs, color stories, silhouette tensions show a unified vision.

The archive reference is strong, but at times the sentimentality threatens to blur into predictability. Some looks feel like pastiche rather than reinvention. While many pieces are showstoppers, wearability remains a question. The more dramatic robe de styles and sweeping gestures may not translate easily into non-runway life. Blue, though beautiful, dominates; some might feel the palette lacks contrast or punch in parts where drama might demand sharper color or more daring juxtaposition.

Lanvin SS26 under Peter Copping is a collection of quiet power. It's not about spectacle—it’s about mood, lineage, material, silhouette, and what happens when a storied house learns to breathe with its history rather than inhabit it.

It may not be a game changer, but it is a heartfelt affirmation: of what Lanvin has been, of what it can continue to be, and of the possibility that elegance walks well with introspection. For those looking for fashion with depth, with poetry, and with visible workmanship, this collection delivers.