The fashion world mourns Lacroix’s last show, sheds real tears for epic French designer

Fashion world mourns Lacroix’s last show

PARIS — The fashion world sloughed off its artifice, shedding genuine tears of emotion and submitting to the humiliation of group hugs in homage to legendary French designer Christian Lacroix, who delivered Tuesday what will likely be his last haute couture show.

Hard-boiled fashion editors and members of the elite cadre of ultra-wealth women who actually buy the made-to-measure couture garments wiped their eyes following the presentation, which had an almost funereal feel about it. Even the models, in devastatingly chic black and navy skirt suits and coats, looked like trophy wives at a Mafia wake.

“People are very moved,” said Didier Grumbach, who heads the Chambre Syndical, which regulates Paris’ haute couture labels. “There’s no question he is an artist and needs to express himself. The difficulty is that we are in an industry, we are not in contemporary art.”

Lacroix, who has been dogged by financial woes for much of his label’s 22-year-long existence, has said he will probably be forced to close his doors at the month. But he also says he hopes to attract new investors with deep pockets and come back, Phoenix-like, after the crisis.

Nearly everyone at Tuesday’s show — a tour-de-force made possible in large part by the largesse of Lacroix’s longtime collaborators — wanted to believe him.

Other winter 2010 shows on Tuesday, day two of the French capital’s three-day-long haute couture extravaganza, included a high-wattage performance by red-carpet favorite Giorgio Armani, a darkly ravishing collection by Givenchy and Chanel, where models emerged from giant perfume bottles.

CHRISTIAN LACROIX

Money was so tight that Lacroix’s friends and supporters had to pitch in to make the show happen. A prestigious embroidery house worked for free, painstakingly applying rhinestones and tone-on-tone embroidery the label is known for; a high-end shoe brand donated the models’ towering heels, and the makeup artists and hairdressers worked pro-bono. Only the show’s 12 models were paid.

In the dog-eat-dog luxury world, such a show of solidarity speaks volumes about Lacroix, whose artistry is such that his name has come to epitomize couture.

“I must admit I was really touched because for me, he is simply the greatest,” said longtime fashion critic Isabelle Chalencon, one of many who were dabbing their eyes after the display.

“It’s simply not possible that a label like this one can disappear,” said Chalencon, a journalist at France-2 television.

The label launched insolvency proceedings in late May and looks likely to close at the end of the month. In an interview with Associated Press Television News, Lacroix blamed his financial problems on a “lack of chemistry” between the business and creative sides of the company — which was bought from luxury giant LVMH by the Falic Group, a U.S. duty-free retailer, in 2005.

“I can’t think this is the end,” Lacroix said in a backstage interview. “It’s the beginning of something, I hope.”

Tuesday’s show was part of an effort to seduce possible backers to allow him to relaunch the haute couture line and a “very high-end” ready-to-wear collection, as well as more accessible perfume and sunglasses collections. It would take an estimated €50 million ($70 million) to properly relaunch the label, he said.

If the reaction to Tuesday’s show is anything to go by, Lacroix will soon be back. Nearly all the 24 looks garnered a raucous round of applause, and loyal fans unfurled a banner reading “Christian Lacroix forever” as the genial designer took a final lap around the catwalk.

CHANEL

Uber-designer Karl Lagerfeld served up an haute couture collection fit for royalty, with dangling trains that added a regal touch to everything from classic tweed skirt suits to slim cocktail dresses.

A heavy dose of sequins and rhinestones in royal plum and fuchsia tones gave the collection added monarchical cachet.

“Chanel has always been royal,” said the label’s one-time muse, former model Ines de la Fressange with a laugh. “We get the impression that (Lagerfeld’s) obsession is never to rest on his laurels … I think that what amuses him is to constantly innovate with new forms.”

The train, a graphic rectangle of fabric that dangled to the models’ ankles, certainly gave a new twist to the classic Chanel skirt suit. The trains also added a dose of evening glamour to above-the-knee sheath dresses in rich jewel tones.

The bride — who traditionally closes couture shows — wore an off-the-shoulder gown made of layers of lace, with a short, pouffy skirt and a train of cascading white ruffles.

She and the handsome groom — in an all-white tuxedo — emerged from an oversized model of Chanel’s iconic No. 5 perfume bottle, one of four set in a square at the center of the elevated catwalk.

GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVE

“It’s blinding,” said Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett of the Italian designer’s high-wattage collection of impeccably cut suits and long, lean dresses covered in dazzling beadwork.

Blanchett, wearing a pagoda-shouldered sheath dress by Armani, shared the front row of the star-studded show with “Transformers” star Megan Fox, in a gray asymmetrical Armani cocktail dress. French actress Isabelle Huppert — head of the Cannes Film Festival jury this year — colleague Emmanuelle Beart and Italy’s Claudia Cardinale were also on hand.

The display opened on familiar-but-strong territory with a series of pantsuits, Armani’s signature look, embellished with rhinestone-hemmed cuffs and buttons that looked like miniature disco balls.

Then Armani brought out the big guns, or rather the shiny guns, with bustier dresses covered in scintillating silver or champagne-colored crystals, sequins and beaded fringe. Models wore beaded headpieces with dangling fringe that perched at a jaunty angle on their identical dark bobbed wigs.

The show — under Armani’s couture label Giorgio Armani Prive — had a vaguely flappery air about it. But mostly it just felt like classic Armani — all clean lines and to-die-for tailoring — with an extra shot of sparkle.

Asked about the dangers of wearing clothes that could possibly outshine her, Fox said, “I don’t know if I could pull it off, but I could try.”

GIVENCHY

Designer Riccardo Tisci continued to plumb the depths of the beauty’s darker side with a collection that was at once ravishing and intimidating, all flowing chiffon and ruthless gold spikes.

Tisci, known for his gothic sensibilities and S&M aesthetic, delivered harem pants sparkling with gold sequins that also covered the model’s face like luxurious scales. Bodices bristling with metalwork were shrouded by swaths of flowing chiffon, and draped goddess dresses were punctuated by mean metal studs. A beige gown bled into screaming red at the flowing hemline, as if the model had just walked through a pool of blood.

GEORGES CHAKRA and XUAN-THU NGUYEN

Lebanon’s Chakra and the Vietnamese-born, Dutch-raised Nguyen were among a host of smaller labels showing on the margins of Paris’ strictly regulated couture calendar.

Chakra reveled in sequins, covering his slim, red-carpet ready gowns in tons of the glittery discs. Highlights of the appealing collection included a mermaid gown in reversible sequins that changed the dress from black to silver on every touch and a red cocktail number with beaded sleeves that zipped on and off.

“I was inspired by the 1920s because I have been doing things that are big on volume and I wanted to bring the silhouette back closer to the body,” said Chakra, who showed his pret-a-porter collection in New York last season.

Fashion is a family affair for Nguyen, who runs her Paris-based label with her sister, her business manager, while Nguyen herself designs, sews, knits and embroiders her creations with the help of a small atelier.

Unlike Paris’ blockbuster couture houses, Nguyen emphasizes creative techniques over luxury materials, crafting ingenious garments that require untold hours of labor out of everyday fabrics.

A pair of black pants at Tuesday’s show were chainmail-meets-sweats. Knitted by a team of three over six weeks out of 30 meters (33 yards) of linen fabric, the pants were as stiff as armor.

A sheath dress in white linen shifted as the model walked to reveal multilayered kangaroo-pockets of rainbow satin.

“I think these days, we really make things complicated for ourselves, with phones and cell phones and e-mails and Facebook and Twitter,” said Nguyen in a pre-show interview. “I’m not proposing a solution, I’m just reflecting that in my clothes.”

If only all complications were that fetching.