Lessons for the Fashion Industry From Alber Elbaz’s Talk at VOICES 2018

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The late designer shared his musings, wisdom and advice for the fashion industry in a talk at BoF VOICES in 2018.

Alber Elbaz, who died aged 59 of Covid-19 over the weekend, was a revered and beloved figure in the fashion industry. The designer, famed for revitalising the fortunes of Lanvin before a dispute with his owner led to his abrupt departure, had just returned to fashion after a five-year hiatus.

He debuted his new venture, AZ Factory, during Paris Couture Week in January. The joint venture with Richemont was designed to reflect a better model for the fashion system, the pressures and strains of which Elbaz knew all too well.

In a heartfelt, funny, thoughtful and poignant address at BoF VOICES in November 2018, Elbaz shared a mix of personal anecdotes, observations and lessons for the fashion industry:

Fashion needs to pare back its unfettered production cycle to a level that’s manageable for young designers straining under the “speed of the system,” he said. Elbaz compared the industry’s constant demand for newness to an old recipe that uses too much fat: “Maybe [it’s time] to cut the butter out and make it healthier.”
Creative instinct and improvisation are far more valuable than the tech tools that might be available to designers. “Life is full of codes, formulas, databases and algorithms,” said Elbaz. “Overuse of all of those can kill intuition and intuition is the essence of creation. This is the essence of life itself.”
There’s more to fashion creation than just empty aspirational content. Long-time muse and client Meryl Streep “said that I never tried to transform her, but I helped her to be a better version of herself,” said Elbaz. “I believe that’s what fashion does best. It’s dreams, but it’s no longer just dreams. It’s also about solutions. It’s also about solving problems with a dream.”
Above all, celebrate your audience. “For years, I felt I was hugging people with my clothes,” he said. “I thought that every dress I make would be hugging the woman who is wearing it. Years later, I received all these hugs back from you fashion people.”

Inside Alber Elbaz’s Return to Fashion

Inside the Mind of Alber Elbaz

Alber Elbaz on Making His Return to Fashion

To subscribe to The BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

Join BoF Professional for the analysis and advice you need. Get 30 days for just $1 or explore group subscriptions for your business.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion.
0:07.3	Welcome to the B-O-F podcast. This week, the fashion industry is mourning the loss of the great designer
0:13.2	Albert Albaz. Albert was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and raised in Israel. He graduated from
0:19.7	Tel Aviv's Shankar College of Fashion and Textiles
0:22.4	before moving to New York to work as the right hand to legendary American designer Jeffrey Bean.
0:27.9	But Albert is probably best known for reviving L'Envain from a sleeping beauty into one of the
0:33.5	most desirable luxury labels in the world, growing the business to more than 200 million
0:38.1	euros in revenue. In 2015, Albert was suddenly fired from L'Envain, and for a period of five
0:44.5	years he was quietly sitting outside the fashion system and gaining valuable perspectives on our
0:49.6	industry and where it should go in the future, much of which was manifested in the launch of AZ factory earlier this year.
0:57.0	On Saturday, Albert Al-Baz passed away in Paris following a battle with COVID-19.
1:03.0	As we've been memorializing Al-Bair on B-OF this week,
1:06.0	I kept thinking back to this amazing talk he gave at Voices 2018, filled with lessons for all of us who love working in the fashion industry.
1:15.2	Here's Albert Albaz at Voices 2018.
1:24.7	You know, I was really stressed about coming here tonight because, I mean, I didn't know how much I should and how much I could.
1:32.0	And, you know, these days, it's quite hard to say or to not say.
1:37.4	And I thought maybe I should speak about the weather.
1:40.9	But even the weather is no longer funny issue, so I remain with fashion.
1:45.0	Fashion is always more of a family to me than an industry.
1:53.0	A little bit dysfunctional, but a great family. I love fashion.
1:58.0	For years, I felt I was hugging people with my clothes.
2:03.6	I thought that every dress I make will be hugging the women that is wearing it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Business of Fashion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Business of Fashion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.