The Inside Story of a Couture Dream in the Making But Sou Lai A photo from the new Lanvin book by Alber Elbaz. PARIS - The piles of fashion books that were published for the holiday season can be divided into those rich in pictures (the majority) and those whose words tell a biographical story of an artistic designer. Few dare to focus on a blank page, even if it has a gilded trim, or to imagine that a cover could be made from gros grain, with the texture of a couture dress and no sign of a title - until you find the names embossed on the gilding: "Lanvin" and "Alber Elbaz." The designer at the historic fashion house explains with his pithy wit how he set out to make his literary mark, saying, "The book is small and fat - something I could relate to!" His desire was to record one single collection from its blank start to its visual climax on the runway. "I didn't want to make it a retrospective, the beginning of the end," says Mr. Elbaz, who is celebrating covertly his first decade at Lanvin. He chose instead to pay tribute to all the people who make a collection happen, with an omnipresent focus on the hands that sew the stitches, stroke the fabrics and fit the neckline. Three thousand photographs were taken, capturing the team in all its humanity and its debris, including glinting piles of empty water bottles or abandoned photocopies of prints. The subtle and poetic images from the photographer But Sou Lai come both in black and white or suffused with color. The designer starts his story in words, published like homilies at the bottom of each blank, gilded page: It's not about a front or a back of a dress. It's about what is in-between; the body; the human being; the person. Or: "Fashion is not about buying a second skin. Fashion is about having a fantasy. Or: "I don't want to see a dress with a woman. I just want to see a woman, with a beautiful dress. Since a feminist glamour radiates from the clothes and because celebrities have flocked to Lanvin in the Elbaz era, there might have been Hollywood stars parading over the pages. But the designer decided instead to keep it real. "I was searching for a story that people would get when they look at the book - and the story is the process," says Mr. Elbaz, who has included images of the Italian factory where Lanvin shoes are made, as well as gnarled seamstress fingers contrasting with the swoosh of a gazar drape. Such intense work does not come cheap. The book will be on sale in the early spring for around €320 . Yet in his collaboration with the editor Pascal Dangin and publisher Steidldangin, the designer has created a book light on words, but with an emotional insight to the creative spirit. Or, as Mr. Elbaz puts it: "Day after day, season after season, I face a blank page and I have to fill it with a dream. That's my work. And we have a team like an orchestra, that makes it happen.