LACROIX TROUBLES CONTINUE

 

Things are looking grim for Christian Lacroix. With only a few weeks until Couture Week, Christian Lacroix – whose namesake brand filed for court protection from its creditors in Paris last month – is still waiting for someone to come and save his house. In an odd twist, one of the designer’s major clients approached him with an offer to rescue the floundering house. The French couturier rejected the offer, however, saying that he prefers having the women as “a client rather than a chairwoman.”

 

In the meantime, Lacroix is hoping to be able to show his work in a presentation of some sort during July’s Couture Week in Paris, and so he continues to sketch despite having no real budget. Reportedly there is not even a photocopier in his design studio. The designer is carrying on for his seamstresses, he says, noting that “they deserve it, even if we can’t show it. I can’t stand having them do nothing during this period because they have it in their blood. January and July, it’s couture. It’s a physical clock.”

 

The designer notes that cost-saving measures were taken in terms of materials and manufacturing, which contributed to the 35 percent drop in sales that were cited at the time of the Chapter 11 filing in May. “If you decide to do something in the deluxe field, you have to go all the way. Even the best factory can’t make beautiful clothes with cut-rate fabrics,” Lacroix states.

Sadly, the beautiful creations Lacroix presented for the Fall/Winter season will likely not get produced because its factory in Granville is listed among the creditors, and even the designer has said that it is possible that his namesake house may very well be reduced to a licensing operation, entirely eliminating the couture collection.