French Fashion Desingers
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«Christian LacroixChristian Lacroix made fashion history with his July 1987 debut dressmaking collection backed by LVMH. His was the first Paris haute couture house to open because Courreges in 1965. Lacroix took the bustles, bows, corsets and crinolines tinted by 18th century artists Boucher, Fragonard and Nattier and varied them up with ruffles, feathers and fringes of Toulouse-Lautrec's can-can dancers and the gypsies in his hometown Trinquetoulle, Provence. Lacroix's puffball skirt - a taffeta or satin balloon of material that gathered a crinoline at the hem - reinvented the ball gown for the late 20th century. "Personally I've always hovered between the purity of structures and the joy of ornament," says the designer who brought Rococo back to couture.
Born on 16 May 1956, Lacroix moved to Paris in 1971, where he deliberates at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre, where he intended a career as a museum curator. In its place, he began designing-, first for Hermes (1978), after that Guy Paulin (1980) and Patou (1981) before being obtainable the keys to his own couture house by Bernard Arnault of LVMH in 1987. Lacroix's inspiration was as large as Arnault's plans for the label: Cecil Beaton's Ascot Scene in 'My Fair Lady'; Oliver Messel's neo-Rococo interiors; Velasquez Infantas; Lautrec soubrettes; Provencal gypsies and his active wife Francoise.
Christian Lacroix ready-to-wear followed the couture in 1998 and dispersal line Bazar arrived in 1994. Lacroix's sensibility translates beautifully to theatre, opera and ballet. He intended landmark productions of 'Les Enfants du Paradis', 'La Gaiete Parisienne' and 'Sheherazade' as fine as the jewelled corsets worn by Madonna for her 2004 Reinvention Tour.
In 2002, Lacroix was chosen creative director of Florentine print house Pucci, and in 2005 a new section began for the designer when his fashion house was sold by LVMH to an American company, the Falic Group.
Jean Paul Gaultier»
The former 'enfant terrible' of French fashion is one of the most important designers working today, his appeal bridging the best and mass markets. On one hand, Jean Paul Gaultier is hailed as the saviour of haute couture (Gaultier Paris was launched 1997) and as 2004 has designed sophisticated womenswear for Hermes, after that to his own well-established ready-to-wear label. On the other, he is one of the world's most famous living Frenchmen, partially due to a presenting job on the TV show Eurotrash in the beginning '90s (not to mention his personal liking for striped Breton shirts and other Gallic cliches).
Born in 1952, he was beguiled by fashion from a young age and would draft showgirls from the Folies Bergere to impress his classmates. In the early '70s he trained below Pierre Cardin and Jean Patou, finally launching his own ready-to-wear collection in 1976. He soon became recognized for iconoclastic designs such as the male skirt, corsetry worn as outerwear, and tattoo-printed body stockings. The classics of Parisian fashion are also central to his repertoire, mostly the trench coat and le smoking.
In 1998 he launched a dispersal line, Junior Gaultier (since replaced by JPG), followed by excursions into perfumes (1993), and film costume (particularly for Luc Besson's 'The Fifth Element' and Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover'). But it was his wardrobe for Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour of 1990 that complete him world-famous, in particular for a sure salmon-pink corset with conical bra cups. A famous person and a genius possessed of both a piquant sense of humour and a deadly grave talent, in 2004 Gaultier staged an unique display at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, entitled 'Pain Couture', that showcased clothing constructed completely from bread.
«Sonia Rykiel
The so-called 'Queen of Knits', Sonia Rykiel is the same with Paris. Born in the city in 1930, she went on to encapsulate Parisian style with her stylish fashion line. As an expectant mother, she had exposed that there were no sweaters obtainable that were soft and supple enough for her to wear through her pregnancy, so, in 1962, she created her possess line of knitwear. This was so winning that she opened her first boutique in that important Parisian year, 1968. And, in their own way, Rykiel's designs were radical. Her flattering knits -often in what was to become her trademark stripes - symbolized release for women's bodies from the stiff silhouette of the previous decade. She also greater than before the sex appeal of knits: freed from linings and hems, her dresses and sweaters were like second skins for the women who wore them.
Rykiel has sustained to build her very own French Empire as the '70s. She recognised the wisdom of establishing a beauty line early on, initiation a perfume in 1978 and cosmetics in 1987. Totally independent, Rykiel's business is very much a family matter. Husband Simon Bernstein is her business partner and daughter Nathalie Rykiel has been concerned in the company since 1975. By means of such support, Sonia has the freedom to do other things.
Nowadays, Madame Rykiel is something of a French institution. She has written novels, decorated hotels, sung a duet with Malcolm McLaren and still had a rose named after her. And the accolades are on coming. Rykiel has been awarded an Oscar in Fashion Group International and in December 2001, the French government named her Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Merite. Now in her seventies, the grande dame of French fashion shows no signs of charitable up. She has an army of sweater-loving women depending on her, behind all.
Lacoste »
Recognised for his fresh, perfect cuts and stylish tailoring, Christophe Lemaire of Lacoste is worried more with the excellence of his lines than with slavishly following trends. With a method he describes as "graphic, pure, relaxed and precise", he captures the balance between fashion and function, creating classic, wearable clothing season following season.
Born in Besangon, France, in April 1965, Lemaire primarily assisted at the Yves Saint Laurent design studio previous to going on to work for Thierry Mugler and Jean Patou. During the Jean Patou house he met Christian Lacroix who was so overcome with the young designer that he chosen him head of his own woman's ready-to-wear line in 1987. Lemaire went alone with his eponymous womenswear label during 1990. His functional designs, with their modest elegance, ensured the label's success and a menswear label followed in 1994.
In May 2001 Lemaire became original director of heritage sportswear brand Lacoste, where he has re-established the company's place on the fashion map. Infusing his own modern, sharp style into classics such as the tennis skirt, polo shirt or preppy college jumper, he has concerned new customers while retaining sufficient of the brand's 70-year-old tradition so as not to lose the old. In June 2001, below his direction, Lacoste staged its first catwalk show. A factual fashion DJ, for his own collections Lemaire mixes Western classics with one-of-a-kind ethnic pieces. The result is determinedly modern yet forever wearable.
Balenciaga»
When the huge Cristobal Balenciaga closed the doors of his couture house in 1968 he lamented, "There is no one left worth dressing." For decades the house lay latent until 26-year-old Frenchman Nicolas Ghesquiere was chosen creative director of Balenciaga in 1997 behind the departure of Josephus Thimister.
As 1995, Ghesquiere had quietly freelanced for Balenciaga's licences. Three years afterward, Ghesquiere won the Vogue/VHl Avant Garde Designer of the Year Award, followed by the CFDA womenswear Designer of the Year name in 2001. Suzy Menkes of The International Herald Tribune called him "the most fascinating and original designer of his generation".
Although comparatively unknown when he was appointed to Balenciaga, Ghesquiere's is a life in fashion. He won work placements at agnes b. and Corinne Cobson as still at school in Loudon, central France. At 19, he became a helper designer to Jean Paul Gaultier and then Mugler, before a short tenure as head designer at Trussardi. But his huge achievement has been his renewal of Balenciaga. His green silk harvest combat pants for spring/summer 2002 were the majority copied garment of the season and Neoprene mini skirts and dresses for spring/summer 2003 kept Balenciaga on the edge, imaginatively and commercially.
In 2002 a menswear line was launched, a year subsequent to the house of Balenciaga was bought by the Gucci Group. For autumn/winter 2005 he showed A-line leather dresses trimmed with pale ostrich feathers and sleek tailoring built-in with chrome fastenings. Former Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole has supposed: 'Balenciaga has one fantastic asset. He's called Nicolas Ghesquiere'