Word: lacroix
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There can be adverse reactions to these champagne clothes, and not everyone is hopping aboard Lacroix's bandwagon. His outfits are not for the dress-for- success crowd -- only for those who have succeeded. Then there are the enthusiasts of top ready-to-wear designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier and Claude Montana and several of the Japanese, all intellectual, all looking toward futuristic silhouettes. To them, Lacroix is a crashing irrelevance. Alan Bilzerian, owner of two au courant shops in Massachusetts, who heavily backs the Japanese, writes Lacroix off briskly: "It's like a foul ball; he hit it over...
...Lacroix may be as much a ponderer of clothes as any of the Japanese. His career was built mostly at the venerable House of Patou, whose line of perfumes (Joy, Moment Supreme) is among the best known in the world. After four years of experiments -- Lacroix never tires of saying haute couture must be a "laboratory of ideas" -- he burst upon the fashion world in 1985 with his Spanish collection. It was earthy, sensual, funny and, above all, fresh. It exuded a feeling that wonderful clothes ought to push their way out of the confines of couture. The crowd...
Some commentators predicted that Lacroix was too extreme and too irreverent to last, but he has only strengthened his position. Frustrated at Patou's reluctance to start a ready-to-wear line, he abruptly left in 1987, chased by a $13.1 million lawsuit. With Jean-Jacques Picart, a close friend on the business side of Patou, he set up his own house, backed by Agache, the conglomerate that also owns Dior...
...partners' next move will be good news for women who would like to wear Lacroix but not pay his couture prices (for evening wear: typically $8,000 to $18,000). In March they will plunge into off-the-peg. The first collection of about 100 pieces, including some in leather and knits, will be sold in only 110 stores worldwide (price range: $300 to $8,000). Says Lacroix: "There will be no flowers, no ruffles, no bustles, but color, proportion, good...
...Lacroix and Picart, 40, have already moved into an innovative luxe line, a kind of super ready-to-wear. With an average price of $4,100, the clothes are selling briskly. Bergdorf Goodman says it took $330,000 worth of orders in two days. Saks Fifth Avenue bought 27 styles, or most of the line. "I'm not sure I've ever seen quite as much of a phenomenon," says Ellin Saltzman, the store's fashion director, who remembers the '60s frenzies over Rudi Gernreich and Andre Courreges. Of such skyrocketing designers, she says, "I think it's scary...