Christian Lacroix

There's life after haute couture.

Christian Lacroix, who delivered his last haute couture collection in Paris on July 2008 to rave reviews, has not chosen to spend his post-retirement days at the beach. Instead, it appears the designer is busier than ever. Lacroix has reinvented himself as museum curator, furniture designer and a fairytale book illustrator. He's also planning to design costumes for a German opera company and is putting out a women's capsule collection for a Spanish clothing brand.

What the couture fashion world has lost in Lacroix--he no longer has anything to do with his namesake label that, after bankruptcy, was acquired by a duty free shops company in Florida--the art and design world has gained. This month alone, you can see what he's done with a museum and a book.

As the artistic director of "Women in Orient," he has curated an exhibition of costumes and accessories that opened earlier this week Quai Branly Museum in Paris and runs through May 16. It's mostly ceremonial clothing from Syria, Jordan and Palestine during the 19th and 20th centuries. But under Lacroix's direction--the designer likes to blend a French sensibility with the exotic--you can expect to see an eye-arresting, rich melange of contrasting patterns and embroidery.

Chivas Brothers launched its latest collaboration with fashion designer Christian Lacroix – a luxury limited-edition version of its super-premium Scotch whisky Chivas Regal 18-year old. Following on the success of the Chivas 12 year-old magnum by Christian Lacroix last year, the new edition of Chivas 18yo will be available in selected travel retail outlets starting in November.

Chivas Regal 18 Year Old by Christian Lacroix features a brocade presentation box in French jacquard, with a mirrored interior, while the Chivas label on the bottle is also embroidered in jacquard. The bottle features an intricate "metallic" design reminiscent of Lacroix's work on the Chivas 12-year old magnum. Only 3,000 bottles of the Lacroix 18 will be available, with around one-third allocated to the duty free market at a retail price of $495.

In November Paris Charles de Gaulle airport will mark the world premiere of Chivas 18 Year Old by Christian Lacroix, with the bottle making its debut at Aelia's stores in terminals 2C and 2E. The following month the limited edition will be rolled out to World Duty Free's stores in London Heathrow terminals 3, 4 and 5, before the product is launched in duty free outlets in Moscow and New York JFK. In the New Year, the limited edition will be introduced to key airports in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, including Dubai, Singapore Changi and Hong Kong.

Fashion designer Christian Lacroix's new gig won't have him walking down any runways. The French designer whose eponymous couture label was closed down, is now the creative director of La Monnaie de Paris (the French Mint). The institution is responsible for designing French Euros and medals and is also has a museum. According to WWD, Lacroix will be responsible for designing limited edition coins and medals including the PACS medal (French gay marriage), and the Marriage medal (for those getting married under French civil law). The designer is keeping busy, he's also set to lend his talents to a new tram line in Montpellier with an underwater theme.

Meanwhile the Lacroix brand goes on without him. Sacha Walckhoff is the new creative director at Christian Lacroix. Walckhoff worked in the company for years and has designed his first collection of menswear. The company is also expanding into home textiles, sunglasses and stationery. Fashionista recently had an interesting piece on the menswear line which has a price range of $260 up to $2,300 for a suit.

On June 8th and 9th, Sotheby's, on behalf of billionaire Patricia Kluge, will sell the contents of Kluge's home, Albemarle House, at auction on the grounds of the majestic estate.

Antique lovers and voyeurs alike will be able to step inside Kluge's 45-room estate in Albemarle County, Va., for a peek at what could be theirs. Those who shell out $73 for the impressive auction catalog will gain admission for two to preview the auction items on-site through June 7th.

Ms. Kluge is the former wife of mogul John Kluge, founder of Metromedia Inc., which pioneered independent TV stations operations through the 1960's and 1970's. Kluge became one of the richest Americans after he sold his company to Rupert Murdoch during the mid-1980's for nearly $2 billion. Kluge made a second fortune in telecommunications and he was also a major owner of Orion Pictures. The Kluge's divorced nearly 20 years ago.

Patricia Kluge, who is remarried, is now pursuing a life as a winemaker and philanthropist. She decided it was time to change her lifestyle. As such, she felt it was time to part with both Albemarle, the enormous estate in Charlottesville, Virginia she called home, and its contents.

"For the past three decades, building and maintaining this collection have been among my greatest joys," said Kluge, in an exclusive interview with Luxist's Carrie N. Culpepper in January. "Now, I look forward to sharing this very extraordinary collection with fellow collectors as I focus my energy on my new home, travel and expanding the business of Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard."

The economy doomed Christian Lacroix haute couture last year but don't count the designer brand out quite yet. The Christian Lacroix company plans to make some forays into new areas with plans to launch products in four different categories to make money. The Christian Lacroix brand returns in some key licensing deals. It will be making sunglasses and eyeglass frames with Mondottica, luxury stationery with Libretto Holdings, decorative wood panels with Marotte and home textiles with the UK-based Designers Guild. The company also plans to get into children's clothing, lingerie, mens and women's accessories. The designer himself is no longer associated with the brand that bears his name.

The Lacroix brand is closing all boutiques but they aren't totally out of the couture game just yet. Our sister blog Stylelist says that the brand is working on a couple of Oscar gowns so Lacroix's red carpet reign may not be over.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Inventor and master pitchman Ron Popeil has listed a gated Beverly Hills home, shown above, for sale. The English country-style house includes a tennis court, a large pool with a deck area and a two-story guesthouse. There are six bedrooms and it is listed at $5.995 million. The listing is here.
--The Beverly Hills home of Dr. Robert Rey, star of E! Entertainment Television's "Dr. 90210," has come back on the market at $4.395 million. It was previously listed at $5.295 million. The listing is here.
--Actor French Stewart and his wife, actress and interior designer Katherine LaNasa, have listed their renovated and expanded Hollywood Hills-area home for $4.195 million. The listing is here.
--Designer Brogan Lane has listed her 1924 Spanish-style boutique hotel and rental property, Villa Delle Stelle, in Hollywood at $1,098,100.
--Producer Marshall Herskovitz has sold his home in a Brentwood equestrian area for $4.6 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Real estate developer Louis Cappelli has found a buyer for the 13-room duplex at 515 Park Avenue he owns with his second wife, actress Kylie Travis. The six-bedroom unit was listed for $29.5 million when it went into contract last week.
--Japanese filmmaker Keiko Ibi has gone into contract to sell her condo at 15 Central Park West. The one-bedroom unit was most recently listed for $3.485 million.
--Clifford Brokaw, a Goldman Sachs alum and a managing director at Corsair Capital, has paid $2.9 million for a third-floor apartment at 907 Fifth Avenue. It first went on the market for $4.4 million in May 2008.
--The lower half of George Gershwin's former duplex at 132 East 72nd Street has gone into contract after more than nine months on the market. The two-bedroom co-op had most recently been listed for $3.05 million. Socialite Debbie Bancroft's apartment, which is located one floor up and comprises the second half of Gershwin's former home, is still on the market for a reduced price of $1.5 million.
--African telecom mogul Yerim Sow has re-listed his three-bedroom pad at 15 Central Park West for $21 million. The listing is here.
--via the Real Deal, real estate mogul Elie Hirschfeld has put his East Hampton estate up for sale for $25 million. The listing is here.
--via the New York Post, Anna Wintour's daughter Bee Shaffer is searching for a place of her own and has been spotted touring two apartments in the "$2.3 million range" at 330 Spring Street and 505 Greenwich with her mom.
--via Curbed, real estate heiress Caroline Cumming has closed on the sale of her home at 11 Spring Street. The building had been listed for $26 million and sold for $19.5 million.
--Vice magazine co-founder Shane Smith has reportedly paid $2.2 million for a loft on Desbrosses Street in Tribeca.
--Hedge funder Glenn Dubin and his wife, Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin have put their 12-room, 6,000-square-foot duplex at 1010 Fifth Avenue on the market for $18.5 million. The listing is here.
--via Curbed, New York's tiniest townhouse at 75 1/2 Bedford Street has gone into contract. It was most recently listed for $2.499 million.
--via the NY Observer, Kenneth Horowitz, the Florida-based entrepreneur who founded Cellular One and Weather Risk Solutions, has paid $5.2 million for a 46th-floor apartment at Trump Palace on East 69th Street.
--via the NY Observer, software mogul Marty Sprinzen has closed on the sale of his ninth-floor apartment at 838 Fifth Avenue. The apartment, which Sprinzen bought in 2007 for $15.8 million sold for $22.5 million.
--via the NY Observer, Russian chessmaster Garry Kasparov has paid $3.4 million for a penthouse apartment at 205 West 76th Street.
--Billionaire publishing heir Robert Ziff has gone into contract to sell his condo at the Trump International. It was listed for $11.5 million.
--Late fashion designer Abbijane Schifrin's former townhouse on East 19th St. has been chopped in price. It was listed at $8.75 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day but is now $7.995 million.


From the NY Post:
--Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and his wife Janet have been spotted shopping for a New York City apartment in the $7 million to $15 million range.
--Late news anchor Walter Cronkite's three-bedroom, five-bathroom co-op at 870 United Nations Plaza has just hit the market for $2.995 million.
-- Belarus-born model Maryna Linchuk has purchased a one-bedroom condo in Nolita for $1.1 million

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Christian Lacroix has sold a Paris apartment for €1.2 million, or about $1.8 million. He had originally listed the apartment in January for €2 million.
--Singer John Legend has paid $1.9 million for an apartment in New York's East Village neighborhood and has gone into contract to sell his two-bedroom condo for around $1 million. It was recently listed at $1.195 million.

--Former money manager Stanley Chais, said to have channeled millions of dollars of investor funds to Bernard Madoff, has cut the price on his Los Angeles condo to $3.35 million. He paid $4.4 million for the unit in 2007 and had originally asked $4.7 million for the two-bedroom apartment in the Sierra Towers in West Hollywood. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--The West Village duplex that Jude Law is currently renting is up for sale for $6.9 million. The listing is here.
--Faith Hill and Tim McGraw may have listed their Nashville home and they have peeled $4 million off the price of their Beverly Hills home. It was listed at $14.8 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day in October of 2008 but is now down to just $10.8 million.

We've been following the fortunes of Christian Lacroix as the brand struggled to find a buyer. For a time it looked like there were a variety of suitors ready to snap up the brand but as Fashion Wire Daily reports a French court has now advised that the couture house should undergo a massive restructuring and lay off about 100 employees, essentially turning Lacroix into a licensing business rather than a functioning fashion house.

The ruling from the Commercial Court of Paris says that Lacroix must close down its ready-to-wear business and couture division and won't be part of the upcoming Paris couture season in January for the first time since his show in 1987. The French Industry Ministry has said that it will continue to search for a buyer for the brand. One of the bidders for the company was Sheik Alhassan Bin Ali d'Ajman but the financial woes have recently commanded his attention. Italy's Borletti Group, owner of the Printemps and La Rinascente department store chains, has dropped out of the running.

In order to continue on in name only Lacroix will need to select a manufacturer to license its women's ready-to-wear and accessories collections and close the three Lacroix boutiques in Paris, New York and Las Vegas.

Don't count fashion brand Christian Lacroix out yet. Lacroix was placed under bankruptcy protection in June. The brand has never been profitable but, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the creative, inventive, distinctly French brand is considered a cultural treasure in France. Italy's Borletti Group has bid along with Christian Lacroix, the co-founder and designer (shown above, at right, with French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi) to take control of the brand and perhaps save it from being closed down. There were four bids total for the fashion house and the winner will be announced by the administrator in September. Meanwhile Christian Lacroix's 125 workers have been asked to take the month of August off and if a buyer isn't found 112 workers could lose their jobs. Christian Lacroix is currently owned by the Falic group which bought the brand from LVMH in 2005. Last year it reported a €10 million loss ($14.2 million) on €30 million in sales.

As designers march their winter haute couture collections down runways in Paris this week, one has the feeling we're witnessing the end of an era. Only a handful of women in the world can afford this level of craftsmanship and, in the throws of the most diabolical recession we've ever seen, even they are pulling in their gilded belts. More's the pity.

As a result, this may be the last of Christian Lacroix. A few days ago, the designer showed a jaw-dropping collection every bit worthy of his couturier status. But his house is in such a financial mess, it needs a buyer to survive.

Lacroix is not alone, of course. Earlier this year, I asked a CEO of a high-end Italian fabric company how he was planning to celebrate the company's anniversary. "We'll barely be able to afford a birthday cake!" he joked.

Meanwhile, New York's famed specialty store Henri Bendel has stopped selling designer clothes altogether. Beginning this fall, the store will focus exclusively on selling smaller ticket items like jewelry, handbags, fragrance and gifts. It's a well-known fact that accessories sales are the bread-and-butter of retailers and fashion houses. Runway looks, especially haute couture, are more about creating publicity and brand image. But learning that H. Bendel will no longer be selling designer clothing is a little like discovering the coolest kid at school is into Dungeons & Dragons. It's just sad.

The luxury segment-particularly fashion and jewelry-has skirted trouble for years. In Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster out a few years ago, reporter Dana Thomas chronicled how the then $157 billion luxury goods industry eschewed exclusivity-a key characteristic of luxury-in order to rack up mass sales.

Still, few predicted the floor would drop out quite like this. "You can't justify premiums these days with the same old stuff," says Milton Pedreza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, noting luxury companies will be forced to reinvent themselves to stay relevant. "Many people feel like luxury has duped them into buying ubiquitous products. The main principles-great design, superior quality, heritage and service-need to be upped quite a bit."

Last month my colleague Deidre Woollard reported that French fashion house Christian Lacroix was looking for investors to shore up its business. Now the brand has filed for bankruptcy in the wake of an increasingly bleak financial picture. Lacroix, which is owned by duty free retailer the Falic Group and employs 125 people, has been hit hard by the faltering market for ultra-luxury goods like haute couture gowns. Lacroix chief executive Nicolas Topiol said the economic crisis had "considerably hurt our revenues," the London Times reports. Major retailers recently stopped buying new Lacroix merchandise and last month both Neiman Marcus and Saks reduced their orders for Lacroix apparel considerably. Sales of the Lacroix women's summer collection are down 35% this year; last year the company reported a $15 million loss.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--Philanthropist and art collector Audrey Irmas has reduced the price on her Holmby Hills mansion, shown above, from $25 million to $16.9 million. The property website for the architectural masterpiece is here.
--Beck has dropped the price on two homes he has for sale, one in Malibu and one in Los Angeles. We'll be checking them out as our estates of the day.
--Interior designer extraordinaire Waldo Fernandez has placed his exquisitely decorated Beverly Hills home on the market for $10.995 million. The listing is here.
--Latin music superstar Jenni Rivera has bought a home in Encino, California for $3.3 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--NASCAR driver Elliot Sadler has put his four-bedroom home in Mooresville, North Carolina on the market for $4.5 million. The listing is here.
--Famous photographer David LaChapelle has put his Hollywood Hills hideaway on the market for $1.55 million. It is listed at looking for backup. We previously covered his former NYC apartment as an estate of the day.
--Fantasia Barrino has saved her North Carolina house from foreclosure.
--America Ferrera has listed a home she owns in the Hollywood Hills for $1.685 million. The listing is here.
--Actor Nick Turturro has put his Tarzana, California home on the market for $1.25 million. The listing is here.
--Television writers and producers Gabrielle Stanton and Harry Werksman have put their Hollywood Hills home on the market for $1.88 million. The listing is here.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--A Pasadena, California home belonging to the estate of the late televangelist Dr. Gene Scott is on the market for $17.5 million. The listing is here.
Romance novelist Leigh Court and her husband, rock 'n' roll tour director-producer Timm Woolley, have re-listed their house and 11.9-acre estate in Malibu, Calif. for $2.799 million. The listing is here.
--Animator and animated TV show producer Gabor Csupo has put his four-bedroom oceanfront house in Honolulu on the market for $5.5 million.
--Rchard Dreyfuss has sold a Carlsbad, California house at a loss, selling it for $1.025 million after buying it a little over two years earlier for $1.25 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Christian Lacroix is selling his Paris apartment for €2 million, or about $2.6 million.
--Tennis player Tatiana Golovin has put her Miami condominium up for sale for $1.298 million. The three-bedroom apartment is in Three Tequesta Point, a 2001 46-story tower on Brickell Key, a triangular island on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami. The listing is here.
--In Greenwich, Conn., Windemere, a 1895 home that Hollywood used for the movie "The Good Shepherd" is for sale for $12 million, recently cut from $13.25 million when the house was listed in September. The listing is here.

From the Miami Herald:
--Dwayne Wade's house is now down to $4.599 million. It was listed at $8.9 million when it was our estate of the day in 2007.

When I mentioned the new Palace bottle by Evian a few weeks back, a few savvy commenters clued me in to the fact that a new Evian Limited Edition by flounce-loving French designer Christian Lacroix was on the way. Luxury Launches has uncovered the pictures of the bottles. There are two versions the Evian pret-a-porter which has a frosted lace pattern over the bottle and the Haute Couture version, a glass bottle in the shape of an ice queen with a voluminous alpine skirt. The pret-a-porter bottle will sell for around $6 in gourmet grocery stores. As for the Haute Couture version, I am guessing it will turn up on eBay at some point (the standard version of the Lacroix bottle is already there with a buy-it-now price of $50. At least these editions are not as unwieldy as the mountain-shaped bottles used for previous limited editions.