Fashion 89 : Lacroix Recalls 1930s Glamour
Everyone was flashing the “thumbs up” signal for Christian Lacroix’s spring/summer couture collection here Sunday.
The show, which opened couture week--that interlude when top designers unveil fashions priced beyond most of the buying public’s dreams--ended with shouts of “bravo” for the French designer’s fourth collection. In the current understated fashion climate, some of Lacroix’s early fashion excesses have come back to haunt him. But this season, he proved that his repertoire extends well beyond the poufs and exaggerated accessories that thrust instant fashion stardom upon him in July, 1987.
And, if there’s a new, simpler Lacroix, every model that came down the runway was nevertheless unmistakably “Lacroix.”
“A fun, imaginative collection,” said Kal Ruttenstein, vice president and fashion director of Bloomingdale’s, as he headed backstage to congratulate the designer. “I loved the draped dresses, the nautical looks and his mastery of the trapeze shape.”
Other Americans here for the shows are Ellin Salzman, senior vice president and fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, and Philip Miller, chairman of Marshall Field. Miller has sent out invitations to a reception Tuesday night to announce the store’s “La Belle France” promotion, while later the same evening, Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris, has invited the fashionables to a ceremony in the Place De la Concorde to inaugurate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.
Given the important Americans present here, two Italian designers also have decided to present couture in Paris this week: Gianni Versace will introduce his new couture line at the Musee d’Orsay on Wednesday night, while Valentino will show Thursday.
But back to Lacroix. While other designers are waffling with a wardrobe of lengths, he stuck to pants or above-the-knee lengths, always shown with a pale leg and usually a flat shoe.
English Beauty
Suits had pyramid-shaped jackets, tight through the shoulders and bust; then, gently flared over slim skirts or floating on froths of chiffon or silk organdy. Lacroix said that the inspiration for this collection was the great English beauty, Lady Diana Cooper. Lady Diana was a guest on that royal yacht cruise in 1937 when the world first became aware of the romance between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Lacroix’s approach to “ship ahoy” reflected the glamour of photographs of that period: oversized sailor straw yachting caps with navy Shantung sailor jackets on draped chiffon tops and bigger-than-bell-bottoms white silk linen trousers.
More Lady Diana inspirations surfaced in the pastel ostrich feather platter hats worn with afternoon tea suits in robin’s-egg blue or blush.
Of these afternoon dresses, the most beautiful was a long-sleeved short dress in coral silk crepe, draped to the hip with a huge diamond starburst and scooped out in back: the new under-control Lacroix at his best.
Ballet Assignments
Lacroix, who did the frou-frou costumes for the American Ballet Theatre’s production of “Gaite Parisienne,” has since been asked to do the costumes for a production of “Carmen” with Grace Bumbry in the leading role. He brushed up his Spanish with a few fringed and flamenco costumes, of which the the best was a black-beaded cardigan edged in rose petals over a floor-length flamenco skirt in black taffeta splashed with red roses. Under the jacket, an off-the-shoulder wisp of black chiffon printed with roses.
As always with a Lacroix collection, the jewelry was outstanding, with armloads of metal and straw bracelets and massive necklaces with colorful stones tumbling from blocks or chains of gold. Hats, another Lacroix signature, were part of the rakish fun, from those upscaled nautical caps to the scaled-down coolie hat worn by the bride where traditional white gave way to a huge spring bouquet printed on a white quilted damask skirt. The jacket was re-embroidered with flowers and bows and edged with passementerie fringe.
Lacroix loves the warm, hot colors of his native South of France and opened the collection with a sunny pairing of a buttercup yellow coat on a cyclamen pink pantsuit. More restrained were his mixes of navy and ivory and his Lady Diana English summer pastels.
As he usually does, Lacroix took over the nightclub Les Bains Douches for a party Sunday night.
The collections continue today with Jean Louis Scherrer, Nina Ricci and Christian Dior.
