Peter Copping Is Lanvin’s New Artistic Director

Lanvin has announced Peter Copping as its new artistic director. This ends the House’s search to fill the position that began with Bruno Sialelli’s departure in April 2023. Coppling will officially join the team overseeing womenswear and menswear collections in September, though it is unclear when he will stage his debut show with the brand. Lanvin has not presented a runway show since its autumn/winter 2023 collection in March 2023.

A native Brit, Copping, 57, attended Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London before starting his career at Sonia Rykiel. He then moved on to work under Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton where he remained for a decade. He spent time as the creative director at Nina Ricci from 2009 to 2014 before heading to Oscar de la Renta, where de la Renta himself named Copping as his successor. Copping, however, left Oscar de la Renta in 2016 and most recently has worked at Balenciaga as the head of couture—where he helped reintroduce the practice to the House—and the head of VIP and special projects. The Balenciaga autumn 2024 couture show, which took place on June 26, was Copping’s last with the brand.

Copping is known for his polished, feminine designs as well as his technical skills, an apt fit for the house. Over the last few years, Lanvin has embraced a sensibility of radical chic and French sophistication. In his new position, Copping will also work with Deputy CEO of Lanvin Siddhartha Shukla on Lanvin Lab, the experimental space that debuted last year with an inaugural collection with Future.

“Peter Copping’s arrival at Lanvin is an important milestone in the renaissance of one of the great French maisons,” Shukla said. “I am confident that with Peter’s vision and technical rigor and the continued perseverance of our teams globally, we will identify a new frontier in fashion and deliver beauty and results in equal measure.”

While some other brands are hiring artistic directors with high profiles, Lanvin opted to prioritize technical expertise in their selection of Copping. It is not too shocking of a move considering Lanvin’s history as the oldest continually operating couture house in France. The Maison was founded by Jeanne Lanvin in 1889, though it exited the couture calendar and closed that side of its business in 1992, following Claude Montana’s two-year stint designing couture for the brand. Alber Elbaz joined the team in 2001 and ushered Lanvin into the 21st century, but the Maison has faced some issues since Elbaz’s departure in 2015. There’s been a revolving door of designers since then, with a handful of artistic designers trying their hand. Most recently, Sialelli held the position from 2019 to 2023.