Alber Elbaz

Alber Elbaz once thought about becoming a doctor, and his approach to design is a combination of the analytical and the beautiful. He is fascinated by women — by their desires, their responsibilities, their various guises — and in each collection for Lanvin, he has sought to find a way to decode that tangle of moods. Like a physician, Elbaz looks for remedies, a solution to any dressing dilemma. “In the end,” he explained recently, as he was designing his spring collection, “you don’t need that much. When I left New York for France, I took only two suitcases. I always construct my collections with that thought in mind.” When it came to envisioning a wardrobe for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who stars in “Margot at the Wedding,” which is to be released on Nov. 16, Elbaz saw infinite possibilities: “She is so complex, like the women who buy my clothes. When I design, I don’t think about a particular body part — I think about what women want and what they dream.” With that in mind, Elbaz offered some tenets of his fashion philosophy. By LYNN HIRSCHBERG

Sizing up the model

‘‘I had seen pictures of Jennifer Jason Leigh, and she was always wearing black, black, black. In black, a woman can disappear. So I put Jennifer in a white dress, and suddenly it was all about her eyes. I did not want her to look like a fashionista. She is an actress, so she tells many stories. And so it was like dressing different women: in white, she is a modern bride; in gray tulle, she is seductive.’’

Red is not just Republican ‘‘Colors are very difficult to use. Often red is too sweet, like whipped cream and sugar with cherries. Sometimes you want the cherries alone. When I look at a color, I’m looking for emotion. I want a red that reminds me of some extreme feeling, a tension in the color that evokes a memory.’’

Women have curves, yes! ‘‘Women are rounded, and I love that. Look at Jennifer — she brings the clothes alive, but she is not a six-foot model. All those television shows that tell you how to dress are ridiculous. It’s like baking: I can never make a cake because they tell you 10 grams of this and 10 minutes here. I can’t follow those kind of rules. And I do not crave that kind of perfection. And neither do the women I dress.’’

I’ve got boundary issues ‘‘Some designers view women as a canvas for their brilliance. I do not think of myself as that kind of artist. Artists have no boundaries. I have to think about a body, a season, a price, a store, a hanger. In art, you can go in any direction, and it makes no difference. In fashion, you have to be inventive without reducing your creativity.’’

A dress is the panacea ‘‘I do not want to sound immodest, but I was the first designer to bring the dress back. I wanted to design a uniform you could zip in and zip out of. A dress can be anything: day, evening, lunch, dinner. Women contain so many people — mother, policeman, princess. With a dress, you can tell any story.’’

The secret to sexy is . . . ‘‘Imperfection!’’

Getting the yin and yang of it
‘‘The hardest part of designing is fi nding a balance between fantasy and construction. It’s like salt — too much is terrible, and not enough leaves you without fl avor. In life, it is the same: we are all balancing every day. Hopefully, my clothes make that easier.’’

Alber Elbaz geeft zijn kleding een emotionele lading mee die een bijna hysterische reactie oproept bij zijn fans, waardoor zijn modeshows meer aanvoelen als kerkdiensten dan als catwalk-presentaties.