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.