Know more about Lavin Through An Interview
Here, I will introduce an interview between Lucas Ossendrijver and Lucire. Reading the interview, you may get a clearer understanding about Lavin.Lucire: Being brought up in Amsterdam and living in Paris for ten years, what differences evolve between the two places?
Lucas Ossendrijver: I think ... for me when I arrived in Paris the big difference was that Paris was quite closed. It takes a lot of time for you to get to know people, it takes a lot of time for you to get into Paris actually, and you have to learn to appreciate it ... It is very different, you feel the tradition, you see it in the architecture, because everything is old, it"s almost like a museum and the difference with Amsterdam is that it is more easy access, people are open, you can get anywhere really quickly, but Paris you feel tradition and once you are in, you"re in ... People are very faithful and very reliable.
Lucire: How fast were you able to get "in"?
Lucas Ossendrijver: It took me about three or four years; it"s really about working with people and getting to know people that you learn to appreciate it.
Lucire: Can you describe how it was working at Kenzo and Dior Homme in the beginning of your career?
Lucas Ossendrijver: Ah ... The companies I worked for are almost like opposites, they are very different but they sort of complement each other. At Kenzo, it was my first real job; I learned about collection plans, about fabrics, about manufacturing, all of the commercial aspects actually. It was a very good school. At Dior, which was the first time I worked in a luxury house, a couture house, well you can"t get anymore couture than Dior, so I learned a lot, to go from the extreme to the extremely precise, to be exigant, as you say in French. You know, to really go for what you believe in. It was a very good school as well.
Lucire: How was it to work at Kenzo and Dior Homme compared to working at Lanvin now?
Lucas Ossendrijver: Very different organizations, a bigger company. You know, we at Lanvin, we are a smaller company. It"s very family-like, so the hierarchy is much less, people are very approachable, and you can go directly to see the manager ... the contacts are very different ... It means you have more freedom, actually; and at Lanvin we have the freedom to dream and the freedom to create and to experiment without too many people involved and that I think, is very important.
Lucire: You have been working at Lanvin since 2006, could you tell us what changed since and what you would do to make things better?
Lucas Ossendrijver: I think that what has changed since when I started ... I started really from zero and it was all an experiment and we didn"t really know how things were going to go ... there was no marketing strategy, but we just did just the things we believed in and gradually and slowly things grew and now we are getting bigger and bigger. So I just hope to be able to continue this way.
Lucire: Could you describe to us the new season"s collection?
Lucas Ossendrijver: There is something a little bit more rough, because I think also you want to reflect a tile you live in and I think for men, times are a little bit difficult. The whole theme in the collection ... you know, I never work with a thematic collection, in a sense of this season we do pop culture and next season we do Disney World. For me, I think there is something protective about the clothes, clothes that you can feel good in, clothes that give you assurance, because when you feel good about yourself, you look good, I think ... As I said, there are a lot of coats, and a coat for me, is really about protection, it"s about a cocoon, but again it"s about different proportions, different shapes. We don"t want to dictate fashion; we want to offer different possibilities ... It"s really about possibilities.