Parallel Number Three: Christian Lacroix (born in 1951) and Christopher John Rogers (born in 1993).
Whereas once conformity was the aspiration, it is individuality that we value in today’s world. Fashion has expanded from being the response to historical and cultural shifts to being a creative outlet to express one’s individuality. Today everyone wants to be unique.
I’d like to show how contemporary designers draw inspiration from legendary designers of the past, who in their career have definitely been unique; and in expressing their creativity have gone beyond conventional perceptions.
Christian Lacroix’s influences can be seen in various modern collections. His archives will be explored by generations of designers to come. Not only is Lacroix now a French national hero, but he is also very much an international asset, whose heritage is above rubies.
In August 1961, Yves Saint Laurent declared, ‘Haute couture cannot be modernized.’ This bold statement was a sign of the times when in the beginning of the Sixties it seemed obvious that mass-produced and ready-to-wear would become fashion future in a new, young-spirited, democratic age.
However, in the late Eighties, Christian Lacroix proved Saint Laurent’s prophecy wrong and brought the international fashion coterie into a frenzy.
Lacroix took over designing the couture collection for the ailing house of Patou in 1981, and his flamboyant, ostentatious, and vividly colored creations sent fashion experts and fashion mongers into the hype of inflated ecstasy. Lacroix reinvented the trapeze line and the bubble skirts that Saint Laurent had pioneered in the Fifties, but this was not a re-run of the past.
His silhouette of a shoulder-less cone made sitting down impossible.
After receiving a backing from Dior’s parent Financière Agache, Christian Lacroix opened his own house. At the unveiling of his first own label collection in July 1987, fashion editors stood on chairs to weep and throw flowers at the newly-crowned king. Christian Lacroix had surpassed their wildest fantasies. He bacame as sensational as Yves Saint Laurent was himself, some 30 years ago.
Christian Lacroix © Photo: Marcio Madeira
I plan on keep writing about Lacroix’s genius and its afterglow in modern collections. I’ll start with a Brooklyn-based designer Christopher John Rogers and he has mentioned the Lacroix inspirations quite a few times in his interviews.
Christopher John Rogers © Photo: Alessandro Lucioni
Rogers launched his brand CJR in 2016. 25 years old at the time, Rogers made an auspicious debut staging his first and one of the most talked-about shows in NYFW in Fall 2018. He received standing ovations for his fruit-colored, ruffled, and voluminous gowns and separates.
It is also worth mentioning that Rogers managed to do it while working full-time for CFDA Chairwoman Diane von Furstenberg. It was a vibrant and extravagant collection with a bit of an absurdist touch to eveningwear. Quite a Lacroix’s approach! His unapologetically fun creations felt like a breath of fresh air. The breakneck pace did little to impede his success—Rogers won a 2019 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. By the time Rogers won this prestigious Award in November, he had already dressed Michelle Obama, Lizzo, Rihanna, and Cardi B.
Both Lacroix and Rogers create exaggerated, bombastic garments with whimsical charm translating their talent and energy into the clothes.
We can see resemblances in shapes. But…
Christian Lacroix Fall-Winter 1987 Haute Couture
Christopher John Rogers Fall 2019 Ready-to-Wear © Photo: ReviveTheCool
Christian Lacroix 1987/88 Fall-Winter Haute Couture © Photos: Pierre Guillaud, Marcio Madeira
Christopher John Rogers Fall 2020 Ready-to-Wear / Christopher John Rogers Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear © Photos: Daniele Oberrauch, Emmanuel Monsalve
Christian Lacroix Spring-Summer 2005 Ready-to-Wear / Christopher John Rogers Fall 2020 Ready-to-Wear © Photos: Marcio Madeira, Daniele Oberrauch
But even more so we see the parallel in designers’ choice of colors. Both Lacroix and Rogers go dauntlessly and with audacity for bright and wild selection and a combination of colors like lime, gold, orange, and magenta.
Christopher John Rogers Fall 2020 Ready-to-Wear / Christian Lacroix Fall 2004 Couture Collection © Photos: Daniele Oberrauch, Marcio Madeira
Christopher John Rogers Fall 2020 Ready-to-Wear / Christian Lacroix Fall 2004 Couture Collection © Photos: Daniele Oberrauch, Marcio Madeira
Both designers, Lacroix and Rogers, created glitzy, somewhat theatrical, intricate, quaint, exuberant and full of energy garments. For both, color and embellishments are used to elevate our attitudes to clothing into something that feels fantastical.
Christopher John Rogers Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear / Christopher John Rogers Fall 2019 Ready-to-Wear © Photos: Emmanuel Monsalve, ReviveTheCool
Christian Lacroix 1995 High fashion show / Christian Lacroix Spring 2009 Couture Collection © Photos: Michel Dufour, Marcio Madeira
“The world needs some excitement from fashion,” said Lacroix.
And Christian Lacroix certainly provided a second to none thrill of joy to fashion fans and became one of the hottest designers of the last decades of the last century and the beginning of the 21st. Nowadays it is Roger’s turn to excite us with his fashions — and he definitely does!
Christian Lacroix Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2002 / Christopher John Rogers Fall 2019 Ready-to-Wear © Photos: Flickr.com, ReviveTheCool
“When you love something so much and you’re destined to do it, you have to go for it,” says Rogers.
Since 2020 Christopher John Roger’s eponymous label has been selling in stores including Net-A-Porter and Forty-Five-Ten. Both Lacroix and Rogers connect us with a fantasy people always keep craving. So, why don’t we experience thе fantasy in Rogers’s garments? I’m in!