Just a year and a half ago, a financially troubled Christian Lacroix was showing couture in Paris. After an Ajman sheikh taunted Lacroix and the world with the promise to buy the label, which would fold without a very wealthy savior, and get Lacroix to design things even more fabulous than couture clothing — palaces and yachts— he went his merry way and a deal never materialized. Christian Lacroix the man went on — without the rights to his name — to design train-conductor uniforms and opera costumes and curate museum shows. Now he’s doing a capsule collection for Desigual, the Spanish label that invited customers to spend hours outside their Soho store in only their underwear to receive free clothing in the interest of its own publicity. The line has to be called Monseiur Lacroix since he can’t use his name on his designs anymore, and the first collection for fall 2011, presented this week at Barcelona Fashion Week, includes 30 pieces. “These are a small taste of our collaboration, which will be more intense in the Summer 2012 collection,” Desigual’s blog reports. So, friends, how do we feel about Lacroix’s latest partner? As though, if he were Starbucks, you walked in one day and learned that instead of sweet, creamy coffee beverages they’re only serving broccoli? Or would you stand in the cold half-naked for a few hours for the chance to get the stuff for free?
Desigual & Lacroix [Desigual Blog via WWD]
