Celebrating a Fashion Talent
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Fashion Week isn’t known for its seminal speeches, but that’s just what it got yesterday from the artistic director of Lanvin, Alber Elbaz, who flew in from Paris to accept the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Couture Council Award. He moved a roomful of fans at the Rainbow Room — actresses Chloë Sevigny and Demi Moore, and supermodels Iman and Linda Evangelista attended — with heartfelt words about his humble beginnings and his meteoric rise.
“New York was my first home away from home,” Mr. Elbaz told the crowd. “I came with $800 — what my mother gave me to start my career. I came with two suitcases: one with some clothes, and one, very heavy, with dreams.”
An Israeli citizen who emigrated from Morocco when he was 10, Mr. Elbaz came to New York in the mid-1980s. He worked for Geoffrey Beene before becoming Yves Saint Laurent’s successor. He joined Lanvin in 2001.
