Fashion News on Christian Lacroix!

Christian Lacroix has been pretty quite since failing to be bought out of bankruptcy at the end of 2009. After cutting all ties with his namesake couture of twenty-six years, we’ve heard little from the ingenious French designer. It has a deafening silence, for someone who has provoked a lot of talk throughout his long career. After sketching creative designs from the moment he could pick up a pen, the young Lacroix planned on becoming a curator after originally studying history of art. But fate played its part and around 1974 he met Jean-Jacques Picart. 

Picart was known for several haute couture houses and provided aid in graining Lacroix a job working at Hermes in 1978. Here he worked on colour schemes and the execution of designs. With help from Jean-Jazques Picart, Lacroix managed to put out season after season of popular clothing; bright colours, luxuriance, and perfection made Lacroix and Picart popular designers of the time. Eventually led to a quite but eccentric Lacroix launching his own couture label nine years later, followed shortly by his read-to-wear and men’s line. 

With his background historical costume and clothing, Lacroix made headlines with his opulent, fantasy creations. His debut collection introduced rose prints, low décolleté necklines, and “ le pouf”, a fantastical, puffy bouffant skirt that went on to define the 1980s and stamp his name firmly on to fashion history. He quoted widely from other styles, such as fashion history (the corset and crinoline), from folklore, and from many parts of the world mixing in a ‘topsy-turvy’ manner. He favoured the hot colours of the Mediterranean region, a ‘hodgepodge’ of patterns with experimental fabrics, sometimes would be hand-woven in local workshops. 

But despite being responsible for such an era-defining garment, Lacroix’s theatrical style has always been a far cry from producing mundane “It” pieces constructed for mass consumption. “To a certain extent I am paying for not having done what everyone else did, with their logos and It-bags,” he quoted.

Lacroix famously used elaborate fabrics such as velvet, satin and taffeta, but it was his Renaissance-inspired tapestries that earned him the highest critical praise in his career. 

This brings me to his comeback venture. Lacroix is acting as curator of the Quia Branly Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Women in Orient’, seen by Christian Lacroix. Working with Hana Chidiac, Head of the North African and Near East collections at the museum in Paris, the exhibition serves as an dedication to traditional costumes and accessories from the region, made up of 150 pieces that have been handpicked by the flamboyant sixty year-old couturier himself, most of which are debuting in France for the first time. On display is the artistic work of women from the North of Syria to the Sinai Peninsula, featuring festive dresses, coats, veils and elaborate headdresses, weaving a story of theatrical tradition much like Lacroix’s own. 

“Having this battle to fight makes me feel that I am undergoing a renaissance,” he declared when bankruptcy was imminent. It’s a battle that Lacroix may have lost temporarily, but there’s a lot of fight in him yet. 

Written & Reported by Neha Kubavat