R.I.P. House of Lacroix

The fashion house of Christian Lacroix, which has produced opulent fashion rich with historical references since 1987, has filed for bankruptcy.

Apart from a brief moment shortly after the house's onset, when he found fame producing the notorious puffball gowns so beloved of the Park Avenue 'social x-rays' portrayed in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, Lacroix remained a connoisseur's designer; out of the headlines but quietly admired by fashion lovers who valued his flamboyant imagination, utter craftsmanship, and bravura way with color.

His couture and collection pieces are priced out of the range of most of our budgets, but if you'd like to own a piece of fashion history, consider this gorgeous silk jacket now up for sale on Etsy. Materials, wit, workmanship, and again that wonderful color: fresh lime with a dash of raspberry, as cool as a sherbet on a balmy summer eve. Merci M. Lacroix, and hopefully see you again soon.

Beauty at the Beach

Never thought I'd be saying this, but THANK YOU Tommy Hilfiger, for putting together the look that, once the sun comes out, will get me from deckchair to pool floaty to Marbella Club champagne couch (haha I wish).

Seriously, this is genius. Take a standard stretchy sleeveless polo shirt, cut fairly close. Throw it on over a bikini top and bottom, or, if the upper half needs amplification, a nude bra. Put on some cool sunglasses. Beckon poolboy.

It doesn't have to be white over navy, although that looks tremendous here. Could be pink over ditsy floral. Stripes over solid. The key point is, the polo covers the avalanche zone between midriff and hips, making it all look sleek and pulled together. Yo Tommy, if you want to join me poolside, the mai tai is on me.

Fashion Icons: Karl Lagerfeld

How much do I adore Karl Lagerfeld? He's the gift that keeps on giving, not only for the collections, always executed to an excellent standard and often inspired; not only for keeping Chanel steaming ahead at full throttle; but for a personal style which never fails to inspire a fresh WTF every time he appears in print (which is happily very often indeed).

It's all so deliciously wrong, it warps into unwrong: the Karl Dimension. The studded half-gloves over fey fingers. The faux periwig over nasty square shades. The ultrastarched collars that throttle the wattles into submission. And here, something new.

Canny as ever, he's making sure that the keys to his zoo don't slip into the wrong hands . . .



(photo: Grazia, from Getty Images/Chanel; illustration from Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman)

Nice Girls Don't Dangle

My husband brought home the first series of Mad Men on dvd last night, which made me very happy, for, as anyone who is even vaguely attuned to fashion knows, this show is visual rapture.

One thing (of many) that made an impression from that first episode: the polish of the women in dress and deportment. Of course this is televised fiction, and period trends will be heightened for the screen, but the late fifties/early sixties truly did see women with carefully curled hair, immaculate manicures, run-free stockings, freshly blotted lipstick, pressed blouses, girdled hips, and well-shined shoes as a matter of course. It helped that wardrobes were far more limited back in those days: with only five blouses and three dresses to maintain, it mattered far more that they were always in good nick.

Little details counted loads. Any deviation from the code of proper dress could mark a woman as a slattern. Here is Edith Head, famed Hollywood costumer, in her book How to Dress for Success:

"As far as shoulder straps are concerned, the sleeveless dress has made it a must that you sew little ribbon 'anchors' in every dress so your slip and bra straps never show. There's nothing in the world that makes a woman look sloppier faster than a dangling shoulder strap, unless it's dirty fingernails."

Whew. I happened to find a Worth dress on eBay a few weeks ago from this very era. Its interior is bustling with hand-stitched details, among them these little ribbon stays that Head dictates.

Looking at them, I reckon they would take about fifteen minutes of sewing time for a minimally-abled seamstress to tack in, with a press snap and thin ribbon. Could you spare fifteen minutes with a needle to eliminate 5-50 instances of self-conscious yanking and tucking under? Our more disciplined sisters, back in the '50s, knew that effortless public poise demanded quite a lot of behind-the-scenes work. [note to self: manicure nails]

Fashion Icons: Althea Gibson

It is bucketing down in London at the moment, which naturally puts me in mind of Wimbledon.

Just over 50 years ago, American Althea Gibson took to the center court and demolished her competition. Back in the here and now, Venus may have the ballistic serve, Serena the fashion deals with Nike, and Sharapova the $5,000 diamond drop earrings from Tiffany (??!) -- for me, Althea has the style; a grace in movement and dress that immediately translates off the court into the sort of outfits you could wear on a summer Saturday and look tremendous, even though it's half a century after the fact.

What I love about the photo here, apart from her taut concentration: that's a nice belt in that skirt. And a nice belt transforms even the most summery, sporty of looks into something just a bit more.

Motto: If you're going to dress down (and since it's summer, you ought to) make sure your accessories reach for the sky.

Queen of Shops Takes On Benighted Charity Stores

Have just learned that Mary Portas, the UK's "Queen of Shops" -- expert on the stocking, merchandising, and selling of fashion, from haute to High Street -- will be presenting a show on refurbishing Britain's charity shops to make them more enticing to those not otherwise disposed to drop in. Non-UK readers, you have no idea what you'll be missing. This encounter will pit combatants formidably armed with opposing worldviews: an ultramodern Mary Poppins of retailing whose no-nonsense, plain-spoken approach to her trade will run right up against a pocket of the land where the ideals of wartime austerity, genteel shabbiness, chipper amateurism, reticence to offend, and, above all, thrift still hold true.

This is, of course, a subject near and dear to my heart, and I'll be fascinated to see how she takes on the issues. The obstacles in refurbishing these places are legendary: no budget for fixtures, a motley and unpredictable flow of stock that given people's closet-clearing habits tends to buck the seasons, sales staff that is volunteer and possibly not disposed to interacting with customers, leaky ceilings, balky steamers, the list goes on and on and on.

But amazing treasures lie within, and that is the gold she can spin . . . with Portas's fantastic energy, enthusiasm, and superb eye (met her at a party last year wearing Nine West's faux snakeskin glad sandals, ran out and bought them the next day, and they're still dead on style for this season . . . ) she will electrify the shops that she visits . . . it will be so interesting to see if she can help them stay lit.

Fashion Icons: Amelia Earhart

The Space Shuttle Atlantis may be landing this morning, if the weather cooperates, after a successful mission servicing the Hubble Telescope. Which got me thinking about fashion in way up there. Stay with me now, because one of the most strikingly stylish women ever to successfully design a line of clothing, or work as an editor for Cosmopolitan, was in fact far more famed for her aviating.

Amelia Earhart looked the business, whether she was dressed in pilot's leathers or, as here, a more genteel day touring the labs at the Langley research building in 1928.

(According to Wiki, her beaver coat got sucked into a wind tunnel. I have no doubt whatsoever that she handled it with breathtaking composure.)

Amelia Earhart, and mission specialist K. Megan McArthur, this one's for you.