In 2021, the fashion industry loses one of its greatest designers: Lanvin Creative Director Alber Elbaz. The Israeli fashion designer, who died in April, was scheduled to present its new fashion brand, AZ Factory, during Paris Fashion Week 2021. However, due to his passing, AZ Factory will now host a fashion show called Love Brings Love on October 5th. As a tribute to the designer, the show will feature 44 fashion houses and designers who will create a piece inspired by Elbaz’s design heritage. The list of designers paying homage to Elbaz ranges from a mix of established luxury brands like Gucci and Valentino to emerging designers like Thebe Magugu.
The show will be broadcast live on Tuesday, October 5 at 8 p.m. CET on AZFactory.com and will also be on the brand’s YouTube and Instagram. The concept of the show will be inspired by the Théâtre de la Mode, a Parisian exhibition from 1945 which brought together more than 60 French couturiers as a means of creative expression and solidarity in difficult times. Elbaz was particularly fascinated by this uplifting story and dreamed that AZ Factory would evolve into its own modernized iteration. The mission behind her new brand, according to a press release, was to focus on “developing solutions for the women of our time” through must-have pieces like t-shirts, everyday accessories and knitwear.
When it came to naming his personal brand, Elbaz chose to change the original name from AZ Fashion to AZ Factory. (He wanted to pay tribute to all the factories in the fashion industry that offered their facilities to produce face masks and hand sanitizers.) Yet Elbaz had a prolific career before founding AZ Factory, when he worked for many fashion houses, including Lanvin.
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From 1996 to 1998, he worked for the French house Guy Laroche at the head of its ready-to-wear collections. He was creative director of Yves Saint Laurent from 1998 to 2001, when Gucci bought the company. The same year, he joined Lanvin as Creative Director and remained there for 14 years. Some of Elbaz’s iconic design elements for Lanvin were luxury jewelry, lavish embroidery, tulle, and silk.
While there he also collaborated with other brands like Acne Studios and H&M to bring new ideas. In 2008, for Acne Studios, he worked on a denim collection called Blue Collection to create a line of quality pieces made from the finest Italian and Japanese denims. In 2010, he designed for H&M and launched the trend for tulle skirts and jewelry necklaces. If you haven’t already deduced all of this – the designer had a Major impact on the fashion industry.
You can find the full list of the 44 designers, as well as the fashion houses, participating in the tribute show, below. It will be a memorable experience to see how they incorporate the iconic styles of Elbaz into their own clothing in order to honor his heritage. Also, be sure to follow this article, as it will be updated with more information once the show launches.
Alaïa – Pieter Mulier
Alexander McQueen – Sarah Burton
Balenciaga – Demna Gvasalia
Balmain – Olivier Rousteing
Bottega Veneta – Daniel Lee
Burberry – Riccardo Tisci
Casablanca – Charaf Tajer
Chloe – Gabriela Hearst
Christian Dior – Maria Grazia Chiuri
Christopher John Rogers – Christopher John Rogers
Comme des Garçons – Rei Kawakubo
Dries Van Noten – Dries Van Noten
Fendi – Kim Jones
Giambattista Valli – Giambattista Valli
Giorgio Armani – Giorgio Armani
Givenchy – Matthew Williams
Gucci – Alessandro Michele
Guo Pei – Guo Pei
Hermès – Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski
Iris Van Herpen in collaboration with Adobe – Iris Van Herpen
Jean Paul Gaultier – Jean Paul Gaultier
Lanvin – Bruno Sialelli
Loewe – Jonathan Anderson
Louis Vuitton – Nicolas Ghesquière
Off white – Virgil Abloh
Raf Simons – Raf Simons
Ralph Lauren – Ralph Lauren
Rick Owens – Rick Owens
Rosie Assoulin – Rosie Assoulin
Sacai – Chitose Abe
Saint Laurent – Anthony Vaccarello
Schiaparelli – Daniel Roseberry
Simone Rocha – Simone Rocha
Stella McCartney – Stella McCartney
Thebe Magugu – Thebe Magugu
Thom Browne – Thom Browne
Tomo Koizumi – Tomo Koizumi
Valentino – Pierpaolo Piccioli
Versace – Donatella Versace
Clothing – Guram Gvasalia
Viktor & Rolf – Viktor Horsting & Rolf Snoeren
Vivienne Westwood – Vivienne Westwood & Andreas Kronthaler
Wales Bonner – Grace Wales Bonner
Y / Project – Glenn Martens
