Lanvin Autumn Winter 2010. Photos from GQ

I typically don’t find myself looking at Lanvin very much. Seasons past have left me the impression that they can just be a shade too dandy, despite them having a particularly refined gentleman edge. I could usually sum it up in a couple of elements and dismiss it as so.

The contrast of bold colors, on top of well cut bottoms, with a fancy for sneakers, that was far, far from the case this season. Taking an entirely new direction, I honestly don’t have the discerning eye to even be able to tell that this would have been Lanvin unless it was label as so.

Though my picks above have the blatant omission of the cinched waists, there’s a lot of particular details to love about this new direction Lanvin is taking. Other than the given, most if not all of the shoes sans the reptile skin, I’m really liking the slanted shoulders. Executed in various degrees of extremity in a number of looks, it didn’t really matter to me as I liked it a lot nonetheless.

And did I also mention the knits? There’s a particular long sleeved black one that leaves me making that angry dog bare teeth scowling face, which in spite it not sounding too pretty, is probably one of my most favorable reactions to clothing.

If old Rick Owens was a dirty prison shiv, a black painted steel bed leg worn to reveal a beautiful razor sharp edge, Lanvin’s new collection would be a classic Japanese Katana, it’s hilt and grip replaced with some sort of refined rendition of a military EDC knife grip.

The ability to take an established aesthetic, and turn it on its head. Providing people with something genuinely new, and blurring the lines, yet remaining distinctly Lanvin. That’s what the more fashion knowledgeable people say, and I’ve no problem to oblige. I’m with the rest of the people, happily content unable to come up with the fash-speak equivalent of feeling pleasantly surprised.