A Design Legend Rises From the Ashes of the ‘90s
With a new contract, a new business structure and a new outlook, designer Christian Lacroix is aiming to step beyond the boundaries of his own legend.
“We are trying to start the renaissance of the house of Christian Lacroix,” said Jean Pierre Debu, worldwide president of the house, as he buzzed among guests at Lacroix’s appearance in Beverly Hills last week, his first in the United States since starting his collection in 1987.
In the years since, Lacroix has become something of a French national hero for the acclaim he brought to the country’s fashion industry. Scores of fashion iconoclasts and old-money socialites alike clamored for his ‘80s pouf dresses, which symbolized the excesses of that decade. Lacroix lavished his designs with mixes of luxurious fabrics and vibrant patterns gleaned from history books and the streets of his boyhood home in Arles, in the south of France.
Today, he belongs to the small fraternity of haute couture designers who maintain a full range of businesses. He also designs a signature ready-to-wear collection, a jeans line and a contemporary sportswear line called Bazar. Yet the rise of minimalism in the 1990s made his trademark clashing patterns, unrestrained flourishes and lavish fabrics a thing of the past.
Now he confronts the challenge of resurfacing in a different fashion era, when marketing and entertainment values have often superseded quality design and couture-level craftsmanship. That Lacroix is a living designer still creating his own collections is almost a disadvantage in a time that values newness.
As embellishment, color and unique designs return to fashion, however, Lacroix is starting to raise his profile anew in the United States. He traveled from Paris to L.A. to revisit the town where his career took a dramatic turn. The designer hasn’t visited the city since 1986, when as a designer at the house of Jean Patou he presented a show here. When a reporter asked him back then if he was open to other employment propositions, Lacroix responded, “Yes.” Word spread, and within months, the designer met Bernard Arnault, the head of the powerful luxury brands conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, who put Lacroix in business under his own name.
“I think that this is a movie city, where anything is possible--fantasies come true,” said the soft-spoken designer last week. “Now, we are like a Sleeping Beauty. We need to be promoted with more energy.”
He’s on his way, having earned huge publicity by making 10 dresses for Catherine Zeta-Jones’ November wedding to Michael Douglas, as well as the dress she wore at the Golden Globes in January. His refurbished shoe collection has just arrived in U.S. stores, while plans to import his new children’s clothing and semiprecious jewelry collections are also underway. Lacroix also is hoping to launch his first menswear line and expand the presence of his other collections as well.
“It was a little difficult during the minimalism years,” confessed the self-effacing Lacroix, recalling the period when his label became a punch line in shows such as the fashion spoof “Absolutely Fabulous.” “Yet I was convinced that there were so many people who wanted to be not so minimal.
“During these more difficult years, I was like in hibernation--not in my inspirations,” he said. “I was still trying to translate what was sincere, authentic and genuine. I have no enthusiasm or pleasure working on something fake or forced.”
As the designer relaxed poolside at the Beverly Hills Peninsula Hotel on Tuesday, wearing not his beloved Ralph Lauren pinstriped suits but a thermal pullover and drawstring pants, he recalled that Los Angeles customers were his earliest supporters--and hoped that they may be again. Just a few blocks away at Neiman Marcus, staffers put the finishing touches on a luncheon and fashion show of his spring collection for 256 members of the Blue Ribbon, the well-heeled volunteer supporters of the Music Center of Los Angeles.
“I’m here because Neiman Marcus has my best, best, best customers in the world,” said Lacroix. His often elaborately cut clothes are pricey: $1,000 for a finely knit sweater, $1,600 for a jacket in an innovative fabric, $900 for pants in an exotic print.
For the Blue Ribbon members--all clad in conservative, tailored suits--the price isn’t a deterrent, but the bold designs may be. Though it may be hard to believe, his spring line was actually more restrained than other Lacroix collections. The women watched politely while models in one-sleeved corset tops, silver glittery pleated skirts and multicolored patchworked coats, dresses and pants sashayed down the store’s runway.
“I loved the colors and the courage he has in his contrasts of prints and colors,” said Constance Towers Gavin, wife of former Mexican ambassador John Gavin, who echoed the sentiment of others in the audience. However, not everyone said they planned to rush to the following day’s trunk show.
Lacroix may have a tougher sell in Los Angeles this time around, but it’s not for lack of planning. The company has tightened control of its products, added a New York-based office and given Lacroix freer artistic reign. Under his old contract, Lacroix didn’t have explicit permission to pursue other artistic endeavors, such as designing costumes for his beloved operas, plays and ballets. Now with his owners’ blessings, he’s feeding his creative psyche by designing costumes for a new production of “Scheherazade” at the Opera Garnier in Paris, as well as more ballets, plays and, he hopes one day, American movies. He’s already designed eight cars for the TVG high-speed train that runs from Paris to near his boyhood home.
As he nears 50, Lacroix has matured beyond the early influences that gave his collections such a readily identifiable look. When he was thrust so quickly into business, Lacroix said he needed to “invent the story of the south” of France. He seized upon the region’s gypsies, bullfighters and bright colors and combined them with his interest in 18th century costumes. A look was born--and so was a trap.
“I felt a little imprisoned by this image of the south,” he said. “But at the beginning, it was easy to communicate immediately.” A year ago, the new, less baroque Lacroix appeared, the result of soul-searching and the new confidence he feels with his good friend Yves Carcelle now at the helm of LVMH’s fashion businesses.
A new house in Paris that he shares with Francoise, his wife of 12 years, has brightened his outlook. The change was also partly triggered by the death of his mother last year. “She was the last remaining person connected with the south,” he said. “Perhaps mourning her was cutting the thread connecting me with the south and its traditions. But now it is expressed in more abstract and spiritual ways.”
Study his latest collections and the evolution becomes apparent.
“My look is more graphic, geometric and totally contemporary,” he said. “But it is faithful to myself. I connected to the old inspiration I had at Patou, which came from inspirations from history and art galleries. I feel some people and customers were a little disturbed,” he said, “but step by step now, I’ve settled into a balance of the old and new.”
