'IT'S Lacroix, sweetie!" Edina's Absolutely Fabulous catchphrase is all that a lot of us know about that most haute of Paris couturiers, Christian Lacroix. Edina's battle cry invariably served to justify an outfit of profound eccentricity, some explosion of colour and print that was raised to the status of artwork in Edina's eyes because it was designed by the master.
Christian Lacroix has designed a range of mail-order fashion (modelled by Lily Cole) and homeware products
Ever since he arrived on the scene in 1987, opening his own couture house and singlehandedly reviving interest in an arcane industry which at that time looked destined for the scrapheap, Christian Lacroix has been a benchmark of couture craft, producing complex, colourful designs of the ought-not-to-work-but-somehow-it-does variety. His designs have developed from the serious bling of the late 1980s to the delicate, handcrafted, historically-inspired pieces he produces now. He has also produced ready-to-wear since 1988, albeit of a rather over-the-top variety, and in that there is always a nod to contemporary trends , but Lacroix is mainly about fairytale, one-off dresses of the kind that grace film premieres and aristocratic weddings.
Except that now everyone can have a little piece of Lacroix, for he is the latest designer to create an inexpensive capsule collection for La Redoute, the French mail-order firm that is every middle-class fashion fan's guilty secret.
The clothes he has created for La Redoute are straightforward enough – a white linen safari-style playsuit (£55), vest-style T-shirts (£25), a hooded rain poncho (£59) – but they brim with his exuberant, colourful, anthropomorphic and symmetrical prints. These even turn up on Wellington boots and a delightfully whimsical homeware range – garden tools (£29), cushions, rugs. "Every catalogue has designer clothes," Lacroix explains to me, "but co-ordinating it with a home range was something different – total enjoyment".
He has also signed up Lily Cole to appear in the catalogue, wearing his funky and affordable creations. It's fair to say she's at least a whole generation younger than most of the women who can afford Lacroix's couture pieces.
As a rule, chic French ladies don't buy their clothes and accessories by old-fashioned mail order, but La Redoute is different. It features special collections by designers such as Lacroix, for a start – previous contributors have included Jean-Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel and Kenzo – but also it is far more stylish than your average catalogue. Being French, it includes lots of items you won't find elsewhere in Britain and that your friends won't immediately recognise and know the price of.
La Redoute has adapted amazingly well to the global market. It now sells in 23 countries, all in local currency, and has a super-efficient delivery system – what better way to spread the word about a designer who may be a living legend on Planet Fashion but is viewed in the wider world as strictly for the rich and rarefied?
To meet this lauded couturier – at whom his devoted fans throw red carnations when he runs down the catwalk at the end of his show – and find that he is a humble, empathetic and normal kind of guy is a pleasant shock. At the recent Paris launch for his new La Redoute range, the 56-year-old designer took time to sit down for at least 20 minutes with each table of guests, patiently answering questions and explaining his decision to bring his design ideas to the masses, without any hint of impatience or ego.
This is his second outing with La Redoute; he designed a few pieces for them last season and enjoyed it so much that he is back now with a proper collection which encompasses some typically distinctive clothes and accessories. But why do it, everyone asked him, when you could spend time in your atelier whisking up dream dresses for super-rich women?
"People forget that I'm not just a couturier," he says, fixing his soulful, dark-brown eyes on me. "I started out by doing illustrations for interiors and theatre design. I've always loved interior design – my first inspiration was a 1950s book called Les Styles by Philippe Jullian, who took a very satirical view of bourgeois French home design and had funny little illustrations. I was mad on that even before I discovered fashion."
Not only, he says, is he not elitist, but he needs to work for his living – and designing for a hugely popular company such as La Redoute is a good job. Despite his couture brand's elegant headquarters, in a beautiful courtyarded mansion off the ultra-smart Faubourg St Honoré, Lacroix has always been – and he is proud of this – a freelance employee rather than a boss, and perhaps it is this which keeps his feet on the ground.
Before establishing his label in 1987, he had revived the fashion line at the old perfume house of Patou, whose couture was discontinued when he left. The funding for Lacroix was one of the early projects of Bernard Arnault, now the owner of the biggest global luxury group, LVMH. He has always sought to back new talent, and Lacroix was one of his first discoveries.
The house is understood never to have made enough profit to suit Arnault and so, two years ago, it was sold to the American luxury group Falic . Lacroix works freelance for them and, he says, "to do the things I want, I need to work to make money. So I'm a mercenary – I've designed several hotels, the interiors of the new TGV trains on the Eastern France line, a number of plays and ballets – I love doing it for the variety, the chance to spread into other areas. And all these things have to be good because my name is going on them."
He is enthusiastic about La Redoute "because they can do anything I ask, and I get a pretty free hand". One of his key pieces is an extraordinary Oriental-style sandal (£135) with a high, lacquered wooden wedge, cut at the heel into off-centre geometric blocks like a Chinese puzzle.
"I designed some like that for my own collection and we used them for my show," he says, "but my own shoemaker couldn't do them commercially. La Redoute has managed to put them into production." And at about a third of the price, too.
He totally approves of democratic fashion. "When I was growing up in the south of France (in the city of Arles] in the1960s, de luxe design was only for the few. I've always been between two worlds – part of my family was traditional bourgeoisie, but then my mother was a secretary. Now everyone has access to good design, and quite rightly. I think the influence of Britain in the Swinging '60s had a lot to do with that. I first went to London in the heyday of the Beatles and, coming from provincial France, the freedom and buzz (of the place] was amazing – it still gives me goosebumps to think about it."
His time in London also gave him the freedom to develop his own extraordinary imagination, of which La Redoute is now making full use. Initially, the collaboration was highly political, because La Redoute is owned by Arnaud's great luxury goods rival, François Pinault (they fought each other to buy the Gucci group and Pinault won) and Lacroix was also a friend of Pinault's son. While Lacroix was with LVMH, any contact between the two men was impossible, but as soon as he left, "François phoned me on a Sunday evening to talk about it. Now I just design for them what is in my mind," he says. "I want to put my heart and spirit into it, as much as into a couture collection".
He loves travel, and the entire home range, which includes tribal-looking pottery vases and fabulous, rough-hewn leather and basketwork bags has, he says, "a nomadic feel, like the odd things a princess might pick up on travels round Africa or the Middle East". They actually come from closer to home – mostly made, much to Lacroix's delight, in the industrially depressed northern French town of Roubaix.
Lacroix himself looks quite nomadic, in a fetching midnight-blue velvet jacket, baggy workman-style trousers and an ethnic patterned scarf, all from his own menswear collection. This is one area that La Redoute has not yet asked him to go into, but maybe for a third season? Nothing is yet decided, he says, but he doesn't rule anything out "because this is a very happy and positive collaboration". It may not be long, then, before just about anyone can look archly at their friends and say "it's Lacroix, darling".
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www.laredoute.co.uk, from 11 January.
DESIGNS ON THE HIGH STREET
Karl Lagerfeld for H&MTHE artistic director of Chanel lent his creativity to a mainly monochrome collection for H&M in 2004. One of the most popular pieces turned out to be a T-shirt with Lagerfeld's face on it. Other designers who have collaborated with H&M include Viktor & Rolf, Stella McCartney and Roberto Cavalli. Since the latter manages to make pieces that sell for thousands look cheap, it's unsurprising that his collection was rather tacky, the bestselling item being a gold beaded mini-dress for £149.99.
Christopher Kane for TopShopAFTER the stellar success of his debut collection, which featured neon minidresses with nude lace trim, last year this Scottish designer created a similar range for TopShop, a collaboration which made sense, as his unforgiving bandage dresses could only really be pulled off by a 14-year-old anyway. The capsule collection featured sweet pleated chiffon dresses in neutral shades with his signature neon zips. Other designers to have collaborated with the high-street institution include Preen, Celia Birtwell and Scottish designer Jonathan Saunders.
Giles Deacon for New LookARGUABLY one of the best designer/high-street collaborations was last year's Gold collection for New Look by Giles Deacon, a campaign that was fronted by actress Drew Barrymore. Featuring bold prints, acid brights, prom dresses and parkas, prices started at £5 for an accessory and went up to a reasonable £50 for a coat.
Roland Mouret for GapWHEN Roland Mouret created the figure-fixing Galaxy dress in 2005, it was seen on anyone who was anyone in Hollywood, from Cameron Diaz to Rachel Weisz.
The French designer created ten classic dress designs for Gap the following year, all in black, grey or red, with a portion of profits going to The Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Some 500 dresses were sold an hour in Gap stores and, perhaps inspired by this success Gap has this year collaborated with French shoe designer Pierre Hardy.
Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc JacobsMARC JACOBS'S second line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, clearly wasn't quite accessible enough for the designer, who last year created his Special Items collection, cheekily named "Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs". The collection included a variety of inexpensive accessories such as plastic bangles, charm necklaces, keyrings, and purse compacts, all at pocket-money prices. However, you had to be in the know if you wanted to get your hands on them. Available in Marc Jacobs stores, pieces were limited and in demand.
The full article contains 1896 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
