2025 will see a mass reawakening of Christian Lacroix’s archive, thanks, in no small part, to the seraphic couture pieces that Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna and Mona Patel have been photographed wearing. This will be a good thing. For as welcome as vintage fashion has become, it is often the same archives that are rummaged through – namely, Thierry Mugler, John Galliano, Tom Ford and Roberto Cavalli.
It takes a lot of research – and a lot of persuasion – to pull a rare piece from the archives. It is an exercise in status and knowledge and access. It says, “I understand and have the keys to fashion history”. But I have found that it is often more impressive when someone rediscovers clothing from the not-so-distant past, breathing new life into that which might have been overlooked the first time around. Take, for example, Lily-Rose Depp, who was last night photographed at the London premiere of Nosferatu in a taffeta skirt suit that closed Chanel’s haute couture autumn/winter 2020 lookbook. It was one of the best outfits she’s ever worn on the red carpet.
“I was thinking about eccentric girls,” the maison’s then-creative director Virginie Viard said of designing this Covid-era collection, seeking to recreate the spirit of the ’80s socialite, and sometimes muse to Karl Lagerfled, Princess Diane de Beauvau-Craon, via retro cocktail dresses and full-skirted bouffant gowns, accessorised with kohl-smudged eyes and feathered mohawk bangs. It was a party proposal, stirred from a time when most of the world was forbidden from being within two metres of another person. “Haute couture?” the designer said to Vogue’s Hamish Bowles at the time. “It’s forever; it’s for always.”
