Designer “Lanvin” Will Make Clothing Debut at H & M

Lanvin, one of the oldest Paris fashion houses, announced today that it will do a collection this fall for H & M. Lanvin, one of the oldest Paris fashion houses, announced today that it will do a collection this fall for H & M.

“I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection,” Lanvin’s creative director Alber Elbaz said in a statement, “but what intrigued me was the idea of H & M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public.” Mr. Elbaz, a popular figure in the fashion world, went on to say that the collaboration with H & M has been “exceptional.”

A number of designers have done special collections for the mass-market retailer, among them Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney. For Lanvin, the move toward a wider audience signals less a departure from its luxury roots than a further attempt to expand its market with new products and retail outlets. The company recently opened a store on Madison Avenue.