Lanvin For H&M Looks Surprisingly Like Lanvin

Alber Elbaz once said, “Doing a collection, for me, is almost like creating a vaccine. Once you create the vaccine, then you can duplicate it for $9.99. But see if you can create it for $9.99.” Well, someone call Pfizer.

Because this, the world’s first peek at Elbaz’s collection for the Swedish mass-market chain H&M, looks exactly like some of Lanvin’s most iconic recent collection looks.

The far left look in the H&M ad, the one-shouldered, belted black dress worn by Hannelore Knuts, looks almost exactly like this one-shouldered, belted black dress from Lanvin’s 2009 pre-fall collection.

Which is to say, it looks sort of like the black, belted version of this look from Spring 2009.

Next to Hannelore, Jane Schmitt‘s Lanvin for H&M black trench coat looks like it’s made from the same fabric as this pre-fall ’09 dress.

The black, peaked lapel, tuxedo-style blazer with jeweled buttons worn by Tatiana Cotliar in the Lanvin for H&M campaign looks uncannily like the black, peaked lapel, tuxedo-style blazer with jeweled buttons from the Lanvin pre-fall 2010 collection.

On the far left of the Lanvin for H&M campaign, Natasha Poly models a richly textured crew-neck black dress. One that looks remarkably like the richly textured, crew-necked black dress Poly wore in Lanvin’s fall 2008 show. An eagle-eyed Fashion Spot commenter has already pointed out that even the pearl, chain and flower necklaces Schmitt and Natasha Poly are wearing in the H&M campaign strongly resemble pearl, chain, and flower necklaces Lanvin has made in the past.

Of course, that necklace cost €834, or around $1,153. And dresses from Lanvin’s main line collection typically run in the thousands. Prices for H&M’s versions haven’t been released yet, but the retailer’s past designer collaborations have averaged around $30-$200 — making them more expensive than H&M’s regular stock, but orders of magnitude away from the designers’ inflated prices. Designer collaborations can have a lot of problems — poor fit, poor quality materials, engineered scarcity, and the fact that they tend to turn perfectly nice stores into madhouses — but rare indeed is the collab that hews this closely to the “real” thing. Meaning it just might be worth it.

The full Lanvin for H&M collection won’t be revealed until November 2, and you’ll have to wait until November 23 to see the goods in stores. The collection will be stocked in over 200 H&M locations worldwide.