Quai Branly Museum

The Fashion Statement: Life after Couture

Filed under: Apparel, The Fashion Statement

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.

Gallery: Christian Lacroix Sleeping Beauty