Anne of Carversville

In this week’s issue of The New Yorker, Ariel Levy narrates a slide show about Alber Elbaz and his summer and fall preview collections.

Elbaz designs for Smart Sensuality women, as one of the first men to qualify for honorary membership in this new Anne of Carversville sororiety. Elbaz is truly devoted to the female form as it exists, to women as we are.

Lanvin design maestro Alber Elbaz via The New Yorker

Albaz is not the familiar male designer with a Henry Higgins attitude, gushing out loud about female glamour, while privately trying to make woman “more like a man.”

Today’s Elan post feature Bernard Arnault: A Modern Tastemaker Exploring Our Cultural Creative Future takes a look at Arnault, and his luxury empire LVMH.

If Arnault is dabbling in sophisticated, Cultural Creative brand-building, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin is further along in the journey.

One Coat: Two Sets of Values

Fall 2009 Lanvin ribbon and fur coat via The New YorkerWriter Ariel Levy talks about this Fall 2009 Elbaz reversible, striped ribbon and mink coat. The Modern woman, being more concerned about status, will wear the fur coat on the outside. For the Cultural Creative woman, (and the Smart Sensuality woman, who is a Cultural Creative), the fur will caress her skin.

In another model, Elbaz layers tulle over high shine, as a way to make the effect more discrete.

Now … before I am hammered by Cultural Creatives animal-rights activists, let me say that both groups exist among Cultural Creatives … those who wear fur and those who don’t.

It cannot be said that Cultural Creative women will forsake every fur collar in sight.

Certainly, the Cultural Creative woman is aware and impacted by ostentacious displays of consumption. But just as the Cultural Creatives are split between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, they are split on topics like wearing fur, from coats to cuffs.

Cultural Creatives are concerned about animal rights issues, and I believe that the future of Cultural Creative thinking will evolve in the direction of humane alternatives, wherever possible.

Back to Alber Elbaz, he is a Smart Sensuality designer, with a strong track record of not only adoring his clientele, but dressing them with sensitivity and sensuality.

When it comes to a Smart Sensuality woman’s closet — if she can afford him — Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin label is a perfect closet companion. A

Update on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7:50AM by Anne

As a followup to my comments on wearing fur, I think we can all agree that there are probably more Cultural Creatives in the Obama Administration than in any previous White House team. And yet the Wall Street Journal reports that Washington hasn’t seen this much fur in a long time.

With the Obama administration, fur is flying. Residents are sporting mink jackets, shaking the mothballs off their chinchilla coats and pulling sable stoles out of storage. Sales of fur are up, too, some Washington retailers say.

At the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, it’s “ridiculous” how much fur has been dropped off at recent black-tie events, says Mike Dean, a coat-check attendant. A