It is over a year since Bruno Sialelli, who was appointed in 2019, exited his role as creative director of Parisian house Lanvin. Now, after a year of collaborative collections and speculation over the future of the label, Lanvin has announced that its new artistic director is the British designer Peter Copping.
A graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins, Copping is a tested, veteran designer with an impressive breadth of experience at Paris’ luxury houses. Beginning his career at Sonia Rykiel, he would go on to spend a decade at Louis Vuitton with Marc Jacobs, where he was head of womenswear. Later, he would become creative director of Nina Ricci in Paris and Oscar de la Renta in New York.
Most recently, he assisted with the relaunch of Balenciaga’s haute couture line under creative director Demna and subsequently became head of VIP and special projects. With the appointment, Lanvin has shirked the recent trend of hiring lesser-known, behind-the-scenes designers, as has recently been the case with Sabato de Sarno at Gucci, Séan McGirr at Alexander McQueen, and Chemena Kamali at Chloé.
‘Jeanne Lanvin was a visionary of her time whose interests and passions extended far beyond fashion, as do my own’
Peter Copping
‘Jeanne Lanvin was a visionary of her time whose interests and passions extended far beyond fashion, as do my own,’ said Copping, who will lead both the men’s and womenswear collections. ‘I am extremely honoured to have been chosen as artistic director of Lanvin and to be able, along with the atelier and teams, to write the next chapter for this iconic house.’
‘Peter Copping’s arrival at Lanvin is an important milestone in the renaissance of one of the great French maisons,’ added Siddartha Shunkla, Lanvin’s CEO. ‘I am confident that with Peter’s vision and technical rigour and the continued perseverance of our teams globally, we will identify a new frontier in fashion and deliver beauty and results in equal measure.’
The appointment marks the first of several open roles in fashion to be announced, including Givenchy and Chanel, which are both currently without creative directors after the departures of Matthew M Williams and Virginie Viard respectively. Meanwhile, former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele will make his much-anticipated debut at Valentino in Paris in September 2024.
