The Nuances of How I Feel: Christian Lacroix’s Book List
By Steve Kroeter July 5, 2011
 |
| Christian Lacroix |
Fashion designer Christian Lacroix (Paris)
Like his acclaimed couture designs, the life and career of Christian Lacroix can be described as sumptuously adventurous, explosively colorful, grandly visionary, and endlessly inventive. “I never loved the world around me as it was,” he says, reminiscing about his childhood in a recent interview with The Guardian (London). “I re-designed it all in my own style.”*
The key elements of his style—which synthesize ethnic details, references from French and fashion history, Mediterranean-influenced palettes, and an appreciation and respect for local artisanship—show up in his signature use of vibrant colors and prints and voluminous silhouettes. His introduction of the “pouf” skirt in 1987 was an industry-changing event at the time and remains today a definitive moment in the history of fashion. In addition to his designs for clothing and accessories, Lacroix has created opera sets, illustrated a fairy tale, curated exhibitions and—most recently— designed a line of furniture.
Lacroix the reader is as wide-ranging as Lacroix the designer. His delightfully long list of titles (23!) for Designers & Books is filled with personal anecdotes and illuminating recollections. (He bought his first book with pocket money when he was ten years old; another book on Spain and bullfights with a cover lithograph after Picasso, given as a Christmas gift to his father by his grandmother, is “one of my most treasured possessions to this day.” About the work of French journalist Patrick Mauriès, with whom Lacroix has co-authored several books, he confesses that he is drawn to it because it “captures the nuances of how I feel.”
The book list reveals Lacroix the former student of literature and art history and includes works by Jean Cocteau, Georges Perec, and Joseph Delteil (a “source of enchantment”), as well as collections of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn photographs.
There are also books that reflect an interest in philosophy (“Barthes is the one philosopher of my generation to write eloquently about fashion, photography, and the visual arts”); highlight a love of things English (Cecil Beaton) or an admiration for American design (Alexey Brodovitch); and uncover a penchant for browsing in New York’s secondhand bookstores (which led him in the 1970s to Brendan Gill’s Happy Times).
Whether designing, reading, or writing, Lacroix gives us the widely imagined and the deeply felt.
*Elizabeth Day, “Christian Lacroix: ‘I am not nostalgic for the past,’” guardian.co.uk, February 13, 2011.
You Might Also Like
Announcements
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Forthcoming: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon
Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019
“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019
An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski
Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City
By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019
Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
Recent Articles
