Perhaps the most well-regarded designer of recent years is Alber Elbaz. The Moroccan-born designer with a penguin-like waddle was destined for fashion early on. At the age of 26, Elbaz moved to New York City and landed a job with respected American designer Geoffrey Beene. Elbaz left New York in 1997 when he accepted an offer to design for Guy Laroche. Within a year, his talents were noticed by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge, and Elbaz was offered the job of designing the pret-a-porter for YSL. With the unexpected sale of YSL to the Gucci group in 1999, Elbaz was abruptly out of a job. In 2001 Elbaz found himself installed at the dusty house of Lanvin. Since then his style has evolved into a combination of free-form creativity and refined couture techniques. Vol 6 # 4 - H
