Lanvin's New Lady

Artistic director Bouchra Jarrar tells Marie Claire about bringing the daylight in at one of France’s most iconic fashion houses.

- Jess Wood

IT’S A CRISP, SPRING DAY on Paris’ Rue St Honoré, and the white-walled room I walk into is full of light. The atmosphere is calm – a lot like the petite woman ushering me to a chair, with clasps of my hand and cries of, ‘Enchanté!’ Wreathed in smiles, Bouchra Jarrar’s elfin face is devoid of make-up and framed by a glossy, dark, blunt-cut fringe. She’s wearing mid-blue jeans, a pristine white T-shirt and a black tuxedo jacket. All Lanvin, I presume? There’s a pause, before she says in a slight whisper, ‘My jeans are actually Muji. They’re the cheapest and the best. The nicest soft denim.’ You should do a collaboration with them, I cry. ‘Yes, if they want! But my jacket is my own for Lanvin.’

I’ve been dying to meet her because, well, how do you follow an act like Alber Elbaz? In physical terms, the contrast between Lanvin’s new artistic director and her predecessor couldn’t be more extreme. Elbaz’s rotund, bespectacled figure casts a long shadow (with his bow tie and signature too-short trousers, he brought France’s ‘sleeping beauty’ house back to life 14 years ago, stamping it with his distinctive, frayed take on cocktail glamour). His exit in 2015 was dramatic and acrimonious. So when Jarrar took the hot seat last season, she couldn’t have faced a tougher task.