Word: lacroix
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...Lacroix is the new superstar of fashion, the darling of last week's Paris couture shows, extolled by the press and praised by competitors. Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel calls him a "breath of fresh air." Giorgio Armani, whose severe, classic designs are the antithesis of Lacroix's, wishes him luck. "Welcome," he enthuses, "to Lacroix with his fresh follies...
...right. Clothing has been sober and serious in recent years. The dominant figure of the late 1970s was not a Frenchman but the brilliant tailor Armani. In the early '80s the Japanese brought artistry to clothing, but very few chuckles. Lagerfeld cheered things up a bit, but Lacroix has thrown all caution -- some would add taste -- to the winds and opted for outright hilarity...
...these are not garments for real life. Couture means made-to-order apparel, requiring several fittings and carrying astronomical price tags. Dresses for daytime run about $2,500 and for evening can cost as much as $33,500. Couture must have an extreme element. Or, as Lacroix puts it, "I am very sure that haute couture should be fun, foolish, almost unwearable. We are like a beautiful Christmas window in a store. We have to make dreams...
...Lacroix discovered his vocation rummaging through his grandmother's attic in Arles, where he lost himself amid stacks of fashion magazines dating back to the 19th century. One day at Sunday lunch Lacroix was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. Said he: "Christian Dior." He attended the University of Montpellier, studying classics and art history, and then went to Paris to train as a museum curator at the Ecole du Louvre. Then, in 1973, he attended a party largely because he had been told the food would be good. There he met his wife Francoise Rosenthiel...
...trip to New York City and the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute caused Lacroix to change careers. "It really reawakened my passion for clothes," says Lacroix. Showing some sketches around in Paris, he found work easily, first at Hermes, then at Guy Paulin. In 1981 the call came from Patou, where control of the firm had just passed to Jean de Mouy, grandnephew of the original designer and the third generation of his family to run the business. De Mouy was all of 29 and determined "to see that, three generations after me, it is still a family house...