Lanvin: Light Weight And Lovely (Fashion Wire Daily)

Paris - If any fashion house in Europe set a new agenda on how men should dress in the future, it was Lanvin, which presented an exhilaratingly great collection Sunday morning in Paris.

Using elements of womens fashion - gathered hems on the side of pants, rouching the sides of jackets - playing with proportions masterfully and using light weight fabrics with a special skill, this collection stood head and shoulders above any other weve seen on the Continent in the past 10 days of shows, stretching from Florence, through Milan and ending in Paris.

Lanvin is a subtle sort of fashion, an understated look that does what clothes are meant to do for cool guys - makes them look their selves. By employing super light fabrics - silk/polyester, shantung and gauze - the houses design teams could cut a lean silhouette with short, above-the-hips jackets and drain pipe trousers, with a forgiving enough fit for most men.

Brilliantly sleek suits in putty, loosely knitted dinner jackets in silk jersey and a velvet moiré jeans and mini jacket were also outstanding.

We also got a first taste of Lanvins new partnership with Swedish jeans company Acne, with some natty denim jackets, shirts and - a must have for next season - suits.

The collection also contained the coolest of sneakers, high tops with green beaded inserts and contrasting hues of Pacific blue, Prussian gray and, again, putty. Plus, we got the sandal of the season - a silk string espadrille that was posh yet laid back. One acid test of a brands success is its ability to get fashion insiders to wear its products - most men attending this show wore Lanvin shoes.

One also had to appreciate the good housekeeping of show producer Etienne Russo, who sent the models out on the same great, battered wooden board runway hed used at last Lanvins womens show.

Shown with raffia Caribbean planter hats, mini trilbies and great flower bauble brooches, backed up by a ripping soundtrack of mixes from The Cocteau Twins and Jennifer Cardini from spin-minister Ariel Wiseman and worn by a first-rate casting courtesy of Henry Mackintosh, this was the defining mens fashion moment of the month.

A surprising fact, to the uninitiated, in the frequently sycophantic world of fashion, is that audiences very rarely give designers standing ovations. So, the on-their-feet crowd applauding and cheering that greeted Lanvins designers Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver as they took their bow only served to underline the sheer excellence, innovation and panache of the spring 2009 collection they had created.