Speaking Style

If you’re fairly new to designer fashion shows, you might think you were looking at a couture collection when all you were really looking at was the ready-to-wear collection of Christian Lacroix. The man has been giving the term ‘fashion forward’ an all-new meaning ever since he started sending pretty things down the runway in 1987. He might not have churned out the next fashion trends for Fall 2008, but he definitely didn’t disappoint.

Volume and juxtaposition were two things that the designer executed excellently in this collection. A plain, body-conscious asymmetric little black dress suddenly explodes into asymmetric ruffles at the skirt, which is made of a patterned fabric in a different shade of black. A very sculptural and structured beaded jacket went on top of a hippie fringe skirt in the same sober black fabric. If chic was the new celebrity fashion statement, the designs of Lacroix would be all over Hollywood.

Of course, no Lacroix collection would be complete without a few pieces that step outside the typical and into the couture side of things. Another little black dress was topped off with a dramatic long-fringe hood. There was a neon green cocktail dress that was disorder all over and dominated on the left shoulder by a huge bow. It’s not the kind of thing you’d find people wearing to the mall or even to a nice dinner out, but it’s undeniably the signature of Lacroix. If you’re looking for haute couture designs but don’t want to be too avant-garde, Lacroix’s RTW collection is the middle ground you seek.

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