Selena Gomez Is The First To Wear This Major Label Launch

Alber Elbaz, who stepped off the hamster wheel of fashion when he left Lanvin five years ago, might not have predicted that his new “solutions-based” brand would have its first major moment on a Gen-Z star via Instagram. But in the absence of red carpets and photocalls, super stylist Kate Young gave AZ Factory, which takes the first and last letters of the much-loved designer’s name, the only premiere available during the pandemic: a series of social-media portraits.

Selena Gomez, who Young helped shape from Disney star to fashion plate, proved game for the challenge. The 28-year-old posed for a series of home photos to use for the promo around her latest project, a Spanish EP entitled REVELACIÓN and due for release on 12 March.

Look one: a starry pink pyjama top made for dancing, according to Young and illustrated by Gomez who took to TikTok in Elbaz’s ’fits. The second? A cream one-shoulder dress from Elbaz’s “My Body” line, made from an AnatoKnit that’s “magical” owing to its curve-enhancing qualities.

“I did 10 dresses, where I used to do three, four hundred pieces,” Elbaz told Vogue of streamlining his output for his showcase on the digital Couture Fashion Week schedule. “The inspiration is not coming from Émile Zola; it’s from me walking by the Seine, seeing people running, and thinking, how come people wear these clothes all year round, but fashion has to change four times a year?”

Elbaz’s strict editing process has not cost him the whimsy that Lanvin fans loved about his tenure at the house. From the bespoke prints, including Gomez’s interstellar shirting, to the peppy hybrid sports pieces, AZ Factory is joyful as well as practical. Its price point, from £182 for tops to £545 for the dresses, means the hard-working pieces are affordable to Gomez’s generation, too. That social-media moment suddenly doesn’t seem so abstract after all.