Lanvin Spring Tokyo Show Pushes Cultural Boundaries

Last night, the worlds of fashion and sport collided when Lanvin staged a fashion show at the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo stadium in Tokyo. 

Creative director Alber Elbaz said the sumo stadium appealed to him because he couldn’t miss the chance to break a cultural taboo.

Traditionally, women are prohibited from entering the stadium’s center ring, which is considered a sacred space. But Lanvin managed to secure permission to build a runway right in the middle.

“This is what life is all about,” he surmised. “Tradition can be nice, but tradition can be dangerous if you go only with that because you don’t go forward.”

Wednesday night’s event, a reprise of Lanvin’s spring women’s and men’s collections, attracted more than 1,000 guests, including Kanye West, who camped out in the second row with his entourage and attempted to conceal his identity with a black hooded sweatshirt and a scarf covering his face. It’s no wonder after his recent Taylor Swift stint that he’d want to stay hidden. 


Elbaz took a dig at celebrity clothing designers while talking to WWD reporters: 

“They may think that all it takes to do fashion is to be famous,” he said. “[But] you have to devote your life. You have to work hard.” Might he be referring to Lindsay Lohan’s recent Ungaro line? Hmmm...

Vogue cover veteran and Japanese actress Ai Tominaga opened the women’s portion of the show in a black asymmetric dress with a ruffled collar and a glove on one arm.