Designer Alber Elbaz crafting exclusive fall collection for H&M

Alber Elbaz, an Israeli who is the artistic director at the influential Lanvin fashion house, has agreed to design a collection for the H&M clothing chain. H&M announced the new line in a press release on Thursday that put an end to rumors on the subject.

The collection, developed with Lanvin's men's clothing designer Lucas Ossendrijver, will come out before the Christmas holiday and will be unveiled on November 2 on H&M's website.

	Models wearing creations by Israeli designer Alber Elbaz for Lanvin fashion house during his Fall-Winter 2010-2011 fashion collection in Paris on March 5, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

To be called "Lanvin for H&M," it will be launched at 200 flagship H&M stores worldwide - including Israel - on November 23, and three days earlier in the United States. H&M's collaboration with Lanvin is expected to be a boon for the store chain, inasmuch as many consumers have high regard for Lanvin's clothing but are put off by the price.

As a teaser, H&M posted several video clips about the new collection on the Internet site YouTube prior to the formal announcement, in which Elbaz is heard talking about the collection but was not identified. Many people were able to identify his voice and his design style nonetheless.