Christian Lacroix

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Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (May 16, 1956 in Trinquetaille, France) is a French fashion designer. Born in Arles, France, at a young age he began sketching historical costumes and fashions. He studied history of art at the University of Montpellier and then enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris. While working on a dissertation on dress in French 18th-century painting, Lacroix also pursued a program in museum studies at the Louvre Museum. In 1978 he joined the French firm Hermès, where he worked on color schemes and the execution of designs.

From 1981 to 1987 Lacroix worked at the fashion house of Jean Patou, and in 1987 he opened his own couture and ready-to-wear business. With his background in historical costume and clothing, Lacroix soon made headlines with his opulent, fantasy creations, including the short puffball skirt (“le pouf”), rose prints, and low décolleté necklines. He quoted widely from other styles—from fashion history (the corset and the crinoline), from folklore, and from many parts of the world—and he mixed his quotations in a topsy-turvy manner. He favored the hot colors of the Mediterranean region, a hodgepodge of patterns, and experimental fabrics, sometimes handwoven in local workshops.


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[edit] Early life

Christian Lacroix was born May 16 1951. In early childhood, Lacroix (pronounced "laˌkʁwa") attended bullfighting events and enjoyed Gypsy and Provencal traditions as well. Some time afterwards his family moved to Arles, a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. It was the city of southern culture, with breathtaking views and expansive tempers. There was a yearly carnival during Easter, when people and women especially put on their brightest, best clothes, which combined old vintage dresses with laces, modern high heels and hats. Maybe that's was the source and inspiration of the Lacroix's fashion vision. He spent time at art museums and enjoyed reading books from the attic. In his youth, he also took a liking to Oscar Wilde and the Beatles. In 1969 he graduated from high school and moved to Montpellier, to study Art History at the University of Montpellier. After studying , he went on to the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre in 1973. His aspiration during this time was to become a museum curator. It was during this time he met his future wife Françoise.

[edit] Career

Around the same time, he met Jean-Jacques Picart. Picart was attributed with several haute couture houses and helped aid in gaining Christian Lacroix a job working at Hermes in 1978 and then Guy Paulin in 1980. After graduating from the École du Louvre, in 1981 he started working at Jean Patou.

With help from Jean-Jacques Picart, Lacroix managed to put out season after season of popular clothing. Bright colors, luxuriance, and perfection made Lacroix and Picart popular designers of the time.

Later, Lacroix would gain the award for "most influential designer" by the CFDA for foreign designer in January 1987.

[edit] Christian Lacroix couture

In 1987 he opened his own couture house. He began putting out ready-to-wear in 1988 drawing inspiration from diverse cultures. Critics commented that he did not seem to understand the type of clothing the working woman needed. In 1989, Lacroix launched jewelry, handbags, shoes, glasses, scarves and ties (along with ready-to-wear). In this same year, he opened boutiques within Paris, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, London, Geneva and Japan.

[edit] Diffusion lines

In 1994, Lacroix launched his Bazar line. His collections during the times of 1994 were based on old culture and folklore, as well as fables and the past. In 1995, he launched a towel line which contained a fashion and lifestyle side, which represent how the two intertwine ("two sides of the same coin").

In 1996, he launched a Jeans line. He included past traditions from all around the world, continuing the line with even more on ethnic arts.

In 1997, the Art de la Table line was launched by him in partnership with Christofle. A licensing agreement was also reached in this year with Pronuptian in which he could launch his Christian Lacroix Mariage line.

In 1999, he launced his first line of floral perfumes, and in 2000 he finished a line of novelty accessories which included semi-precious jewelry.

In 2001, Lacroix also launced a children's line and in 2002, he launched a perfume, Bazar, created by Bertrand Duchaufour, Jean-Claude Ellena and Emilie Copperman.

In 2004, Lacroix launched a lingerie for women line, as well as a menswear line.

He is known for his theatrical style which came from his work while in the theatre. This usually shows up with his use of colour in the collections he designs. Along with this, he is also known for his 'le pouf' gown (featuring the ball skirt), as well as closing all his haute couture fashion shows with a model dressed up as a bride.

Christian Lacroix Rouge, a perfume created by Lacroix exclusively for Avon Products
Christian Lacroix Rouge, a perfume created by Lacroix exclusively for Avon Products

In October 2002 after the presentation of his spring/summer 2003 collection, Lacroix resigned from the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by Bernard Arnault, Chairman of LVMH.

He served as the Creative Director for the Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci from 2002-2005. He left on agreeable terms as he and the house believed that since he had other pursuits, it would be unfair to the house to not put in the energy required for future collections along with his other work.

Christian Lacroix has designed many dresses for Hollywood stars; among them, he is responsible for designing the wedding dress of Grammy award winning Christina Aguilera and was, in the 1990s, famed as being a favourite designer of "Edina Monsoon" in the hit UK sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (for which the house drew dubious credit).

He has also been the designer of the new uniform of Air France staff and crew in 2004 and pyjamas signed by him are handed out to passengers travelling on Air France First Class (L'Espace Premier).

Today, Lacroix has 60 points of sale within France (department stores included). Around the world, Lacroix has 1,000 total points of sale.

For Winter 2007, He has partnered with Avon cosmetics to introduce a new fragrance exclusive to Avon called Christian Lacroix Rouge for women and Christian Lacroix Noir for men.

[edit] External links

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Grands couturiers
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