Fashion icon Alber Elbaz has designed something remarkable. But it comes strapped with one caveat: you can't wear it.

The game-changer of the house of Lanvin has given life to the slowly ailing, and oft-oversimplified world of fashion book making. For his latest couture collection, Elbaz took to the books to record and document the entire process, from blank page to runway show. Every stitch, every hand, every whimsical idea that went through the Lanvin studio is lovingly captured in the humble-looking Lavin-Alber Elbaz book.

New York Times reports:

Three thousand photographs were taken, capturing the team in all its humanity and its debris, including glinting piles of empty water bottles or abandoned photocopies of prints. The subtle and poetic images from the photographer But Sou Lai come both in black and white or suffused with color…………….
“I was searching for a story that people would get when they look at the book — and the story is the process,” says Mr. Elbaz, who has included images of the Italian factory where Lanvin shoes are made, as well as gnarled seamstress fingers contrasting with the swoosh of a gazar drape.

There’s something inspiring about the documentation of process. Elbaz gives a narrative to a collection that many other brands have tried their hand at, with less successful results. In doing this, how things are made takes precedence over what the final product is, rendering it an object with built in history.

Links to consider:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/fashion/10iht-flanvin10.ht...