Lanvin gets dolled up for charity

Alber Elbaz’s fanciful drawings leap off the page with a new line of limited edition fabric dolls from Lanvin. The four designs are garbed in miniature versions of outfits from the French fashion house’s forthcoming children’s line, Lanvin Petite.

The dolls are hand-crafted and embroidered by HIV-positive women in Swaziland. One in four adults in the small southern African kingdom lives with the virus, yet it’s often the cause of community exclusion for affected individuals.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of the dolls will fund the work of Dessine L’espoir (Designing Hope), a French NGO that helps women affected by HIV and AIDS in southern Africa support themselves and their families. At €250 each, the dolls cost more than 10% of the average annual income in Swaziland as reported by World Vision.