Laetitia Ivanez: Like Dad, Like Daughter

All designers have a history that explains how they stepped into the world of fashion. It might be the clothes of their parents or grandparents for some or costumes of theatre or films for the others. For Laetitia Ivanez, the connection was one of the most prosaic textiles: a little piece of gauze.

“It was through the discovery of dressing gauze, a rudimentary and rather simple material that my parents transformed into deliciously coloured skirts, using artisanal dyes at home which were dried in the Marseille sun.”

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“I knew then that I was interested in clothes. There were also these conversations I had with my aunts about Yves Saint Laurent, a cousin who unfortunately I never met,” Laetitia says. Simple, nostalgic moments which were far from poetry, coincided perfectly with the fashion that the designer in her creates.

We could almost talk of a philosophy of fashion which could not have existed without the notions of family, warmth and the south of France sun. Above all else, it is these elements that are responsible for the success of Les Prairies de Paris, the brand started by her father, Louis Ivanez, in 1991, which she took over after his retirement.

With the very same element, she operates at Galeries Lafayette, as the in-charge of the women’s collection since 2016. “I accepted the job of heading this collection because I love to tell stories, live intense adventures, look straight at the heights needed to be scaled. In this profession we are the collectors of shapes and forms, colours and details. I was driven to apply all that I had collected over the years, motivated to create fashion that was elegant and open to all,” she says.

Today, Laetitia creates about 280 references per season. If the large number isn’t enough, the Marseille girl insists that each article is looked at individually and in detail. “The first criterion is to feel the sensation when one simply sees the fabric without touching it. I love the idea of moving towards everything that is natural. Second, one needs the exigence to make the product possible. Not to skip any of the steps from design to manufacture, from the thread to the button. One has to be aware of the trends and not forget that with Galeries Lafayette, it’s like wearing a little of the Eiffel Tower on oneself. It’s Paris! Fashion has always lived here.”

It has now been two seasons that we make our way to Boulevard Haussmann to uncover on one shelf a cream coloured collared shirt and in another a woollen overcoat. All thanks to Laetitia and her sense of fashion which is to make you feel comfortable, even if it is made up of the basics. Basics most certainly, but not without colour. An appeal that she ties, once again, to the memories of her childhood. “At a very young age I had been touched by the wonder called colours. My parents would dye their artisanal clothes at our home. I swam in a sea of colours of Cretan white and forest green and gypsy blue. For me colour is what brightens up our lives.”

It’s not as if innovation doesn’t have a home at Galeries Lafayette. “A portion of the collection revisits the basics, the other leaves more room for creativity. The challenge is to position the brand of Galeries Lafayette, and in so doing create an identity, a signature, to etch a place for us in the history of fashion,” she says. And she is that warhorse, even though she is aware that she works as the head of an enormous store. For a brand that should be accessible to all, there is no question of cutting corners on the quality, to the verge of being completely uncompromising over the quality. Fabrics used these days are eco-friendly. “Quality products should be accessible to all, and we need to save our planet. I would also like to get others to understand that it is time to move towards a fashion that is good for all those who consume it,” she says.

From the December 2017 issue of L’Officiel India.