Christian Lacroix, the king of Baroque couture, took his company into voluntary receivership last week after marking a 1.2 million euro debt. Since news of the company's troubles spread, it was questioned whether Lacroix could still have his couture show in July. After all, his is one of 125 jobs that are in danger if a new financing option isn't found in the next two weeks.
Well, the designer says yes to the Telegraph. In an especially open interview, the fashion legend loved by everyone from the 'Absolutely Fabulous' girls to Nicole Kidman tells his hopes to save his company in a last-ditch effort.
We hope he can. The fighter has really come out in Lacroix, and it's passion like his that sometimes can save something beautiful when the end could be very near.
On his family legacy: "What really hurts is that my name, which I have now lost, is the name of my family. Whoever does take over the business can use it and abuse it as they like, but it's my father's name, and my grandfather's name – men who brought me up to have a very rigid moral backbone; men who taught me never to have any debts."
On couture in July: "I'm fighting. Don't tell anyone, because I'm not allowed to do this, but we absolutely are going to have a show in mid-July, during Fashion Week – and it won't be a funeral: It'll be a fightback."
How it'll happen: "It can't cost us a single euro to put this show on, because I'm not having my workers lose a penny from their pockets, but so far, it looks like thanks to other people's kindness – friends and suppliers working for free – it might happen."
On why the money trouble happened: "I can't stand the idea that people think I am to blame. But to a certain extent I am paying for not having done what everyone else did, with their logos and It-bags. I never went down that route."
On the importance of fashion in troubled times: "Fashion needs to be worn. People are wrong when they see it as being disconnected from reality: every morning, before I sit down to draw, I read all the papers, listen to the radio and find out what is going on in Iran – all that influences me. Besides, in periods of crisis, people need to see beautiful things around them."
On his mother, who influenced his fashion sense: "Even as the sirens went off during the blitz, she would put on her best shoes. My mother and her friends would wear these wonderful big 1950s puffball skirts and I would crawl around underneath them, breathing in their strong perfumes."
On designing the corseted, crinoline dresses that made him famous: "My extended family were very embarrassed. 'Why don't you make things like Yves Saint Laurent?' they'd ask. 'Because my name is Christian Lacroix,' I told them."
On how the recession could help his business: "If you look back at the history of creativity in clothes – the French Revolution, the First World War and the Second World War – they have all been creative reinventions, the moment new forms of luxury come into play."
