In the most recent sign of growing complicity between luxury fashion brands and music, Lanvin has tapped Grammy-winning rapper Future for a collaboration spanning ready-to-wear and accessories for ladies and men, WWD has learned.

Lanvin plans to release the gathering for winter 2023 retailing, with Future the primary guest creative for its latest Lanvin Lab, conceived to incubate latest ideas and ideas for the French house alongside its foremost product lines.

“The collaboration got here about organically, as Future has recently shown a real interest in Lanvin,” Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin, disclosed in an exclusive interview.

Shukla described Future’s style as “deeply personal and complicated. He possesses a pointy self-awareness and exercises precision in his selections — qualities we understand at Lanvin.”

Lauding him as “some of the necessary and influential musicians, producers and artists globally, his role in inaugurating Lanvin Lab carries a sociocultural resonance that manages directly to be far-reaching and private, given his affiliation with the Lanvin brand ethic.”

The style house also characterised the tie-up as coherent with its legacy, billing founder Jeanne Lanvin as an “arbiter of culture” in addition to a designer. Her inner circle included decorator Armand-Albert Rateau, painter Édouard Vuillard, actor Sacha Guitry and author Louise de Vilmorin.

The brand also noted that Jeanne Lanvin’s daughter and muse, Marguerite, was a musician who incessantly collaborated with French composer Francis Poulenc, while Yvonne Printemps, a soprano and actress, served as one other house muse within the Nineteen Twenties.

Keeping this link alive, several of Lanvin’s latest accessory lines are named after musical references, including Melodie, Sequence and Concerto.

Future is sure to bring a buzzy chapter to Lanvin, given his popularity.

He counts 24.3 million followers on Instagram, although the account currently carries only two posts, the last dated Aug. 4: It depicts him together with his hands to his face, and the napkins under his sunglasses, but the attention goes to his staggering diamond-studded watch, chains and bracelets.

A prolific recording artist known for his melodies, unique vocal style and use of auto-tune, he has collaborated over time with the likes of Pusha T, The Weeknd, Drake and Tems, plus Pharrell Williams and Kanye West (now referred to as Ye), music superstars who each went on to turn out to be players in the style industry. (Earlier this week, Williams unveiled his debut collection as men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton, and performed with Jay-Z after the show.)

Future, whose real name is Nayvadius DeMun Money, has an eclectic personal style spanning varsity and souvenir jackets, camouflage, hoodies, trucker caps and mountie hats. Sunglasses and statement-making jewelry are a given.

Shukla described Lanvin’s project with Future as “complete end-to-end co-creation” — a contrast to the ambassadorships with mostly K-pop music stars that European brands are forging at a furious pace.

At his request, Future was “fully engaged in a lengthy creative means of research and work in Paris with the Lanvin studio,” in keeping with Shukla, who organized a tour of the founder’s office, and granted full access to the home archives so the rapper could “effectively communicate and deliberate with the experts and artisans who make up the Lanvin creative studio today.”

The gathering remains to be under wraps, but the manager said it could “incorporate known Lanvin design elements alongside ideas fueled by Future’s creative direction.”

Men’s and ladies’s ranges represent a “complete lifestyle offer of a contemporary Lanvin refocused through Future’s unique aesthetic lens,” Shukla said.

It is known Atlanta-born Future will tip his hat to modern hip-hop, with Lanvin noting noting its influence extends beyond music and entertainment to resonate” throughout broad swathes of up to date culture today.”

This yr marks the fiftieth anniversary of the favored music genre, which has had an incredible influence on fashion by popularizing styles like oversize pants, logo necklaces and more.  

“The gathering is conceived as a democratic range that we consider will appeal to our collective fans and followers and clients across geographies and demographics,” Shukla said, stressing “it will not be driven by what we frequently see out there as easy collaboration ‘merchandise.’”

“In today’s interconnected world, the strongest brands are multifaceted and multidimensional, and we consider that Future will enhance our reference to a segment of Lanvin’s clientele and audience who relate and aspire to his style,” he continued. “He embodies Renaissance qualities across forms and genres, the humanities and philanthropic initiatives, with music defining his culture but not limiting it.”

The gathering will debut in drops at Lanvin boutiques, on lanvin.com and thru select retailers worldwide.

The brand new Lanvin Lab project was ushered in a component of a broader reset by the American executive, who joined the French company from Theory at the top of 2021.

Since then, the brand unveiled a rejiggered logo, commissioned two black-and-white Steven Meisel campaigns, and initiated a comprehensive reset of its product strategy. Recent collections have hinged on a quieter type of chic linked to Lanvin’s claim to fame because the oldest fashion house in Paris — according to a wider trend around heritage luxury.

Last April, it said it could part ways with its creative director Bruno Sialelli after a four-year collaboration and adopt a latest creative configuration accentuating leather goods and accessories — plus special projects under the Lanvin Lab banner.

The plan for the latter is to ask proven and rising international talents from an array of disciplines for “creative partnerships,” as reported.

Lanvin doesn’t plan to hew to a hard and fast calendar for such partnerships, with Shukla ascribing to a “freedom of rhythm, and dealing in a way that will not be opportunistic or overtly programmed. The lab is our way of showing that there are a lot of paths for a fashion house to precise itself culturally today.”