It's hard not to love Alber Elbaz. The adorable Lanvin creative director is possibly the most self-deprecating, insecure fashion designer around (he thought "there would be no one" in line the day his collection hit H&M). Yet he never takes himself too seriously.
Case in point: this off-the-cuff quip to Vogue UK:
"I don't take drugs because if I did I'd love them - I'd be a junkie. And because I'm Jewish, I'd probably be a dealer too."
The Israeli-born designer spoke about the pressures designers endure to create massive collections at a breakneck pace. "You start to understand," he told the British mag, "why some designers do strange things, why some designers talk to themselves, you have to find a way of dealing with it all."
It's the same opinion shared by so many in the fashion industry, including Azzedine Alaia and John Galliano himself.
But Elbaz handles with the stress with some rather innocent coping mechanisms that don't include drugs and alcohol. Says the ever self-effacing designer, "My escape is television - it's like meditation to me."
In the meantime, Lanvin is like meditation to us. Between Elbaz's carefree ads, his charitable ways and his gorgeous, feminine clothes, Lanvin is designed to make women feel simply fabulous. Elbaz told Vogue UK, "I realised actually it's our job as designers to make women smile; to bring them the chocolate without the calories."
And just when we thought we couldn't love this man any more.