Christian Lacroix is among the most genius couture fashion designers of our time. Growing up, Lacroix loved going to children's shows at the theatre. Obviously inspired by fashion, when he got home from any given show, he would sketch all of the costumes that he had just seen. This love for the theatre continued to grow until he met Jean-Luc Tardieu, director of the Maison de la Culture in Nantes in 1986. After talking with Lacroix, Tardieu knew that he had to have him as the costume designer for Edmund Rostand's "Chatecler". This story focused around barn animals, which Lacroix decided to represent these in a non-literal manner. For instance, the barn owl was costumed in patterns of black and white polka dots layered to represent the feather like texture, without physically costuming as a bird. The production was a major success, and a fantastic statement for Lacroix to make as a costume designer. The following year he made an even bigger splash in the high fashion couture industry, building his reputation ever since.
While the primary focus of his career has been on couture designing, Lacroix has always had his hand in stage costume designing as well. Among many others, some highlights of his costuming have been a production of Othello where he paired flea market finds with high end luxury fabrics. He designed a Cosi juxtaposing jersey knit street wear with period 18th century gowns and other costumes. He also designed a very critically acclaimed production of Carmen in which he found major inspiration from the shades and nuances used by Ignacio Zuloaga and Julio Romero de Torres in their paintings and combined it with a lot of influence from (appropriately) bull fighters.
The first time I saw Lacroix's work as a costume designer was at the Met Opera season opening gala in 2008, An Evening with Renee Fleming. This evening was a vehicle to feature Ms. Fleming in roles that she picked as some of her favorites. She sang Violetta, Manon, and the Countess in Capriccio to cap off the evening. If that wasn't enough, the costumes for Ms. Fleming were all designed by leading designers in the fashion industry. You had costumes designed by John Galiano, Karl Lagerfeld, and last but certainly not least, Christian Lacroix.
The result was one of the most memorable nights for me in recent operatic history, and one that certainly garnered quite a bit of media attention. In addition to the evening being focused entirely around the people's diva, all of her gowns were designed exclusively for her, for that performance only, by couture designers. Ms. Fleming did a spread in Vogue at the time to put these absolutely breathtaking gowns on display for the world to appreciate. While she loved working with all the designers of the various gowns, Ms. Fleming in particular loved the designs of Mr. Lacroix. She felt as though they were incredibly flattering and sexy while really driving home the feel of the character. Mr. Lacroix designed the two gowns for Violetta.
In everything he does, Lacroix is known for designs that are a little bit eccentric while remaining elegant and extremely luxurious. Everything he designs is hand made. A lover of the arts, Lacroix has the utmost respect for all the mediums that perform on stage. He understands that he is not the most important part of the evening, that he is there to serve the vision of the team that has hired him. He is entirely humbled by the beauty of live performance on stage. Although the costumes are not gowns to be worn for special occasions (but rather to be moved in, sweat in, to be comfortable in!!!), he still uses all high quality couture fabrics, hand tinting, etc. He maintains the couture integrity of his gowns while still allowing for complete comfortable range of movement and better yet, they are all easily cleaned!
The first gown from the Fleming gala, shown below, was worn by Violetta while she is still in the country house. Violetta has moved to the country with Alfredo, but his father has just come and told the courtesan that his family is being shamed by Alredo's relationship with her. She must leave him. The gown that she is wearing at this time is almost exclusively pastel chiffon. The dress reads like a Monet painting, very impressionistic with broad strokes of color and silhouette. The gown is corsetted with various rosettes about the gown, and then extremely flowy and feminine in the sleeves and skirt. This gown shows the vulnerable side of Violetta; the side that she really wants to be and shows that she wants to give her whole heart to Alfredo. But Germont simply won't allow that.
The next gown (for the next act of Traviata) is much different from the first. Draped in heavy dark ruby silk, this gown shows the weight of Violetta's regret for leaving Alfredo. While the first gown was very light weight, very sheer, and much smaller in scale, this gown is all about drama. Also, the first gown had many colors in the dying, but this gown is all very saturated and dark shades of scarlet. While the first gown represents Violetta's happy and carefree life with Alfredo in the country, this gown clearly shows the heavy weight consuming Violetta at this time. She feels as though she has betrayed him, and cannot get the guilt out of her mind. With a constricting corset as well as extremely fitted sleeves, the fit of the gown perhaps represents that she feels she is entirely constricted by her guilt; the dress serves almost as a proverbial straight jacket. The much fuller ball gown skirt only continues to add weight to her psyche.
Ms. Fleming was so inspired by the costumes Mr. Lacroix designed for her here that she requested that he design all of her costumes for the Met's new production of Thais in the 08-09 season. Thais is the story of a courtesan in ancient Alexandria. She is visited by Athanael, a monk, who has visions of saving Thais. After initially laughing at his ignorance to carnal joys, she is left to consider the beauty of eternal happiness. So affected by Athanael's conviction, Thais decides to go to a convent and devote her life to serving the Lord. Just at the moment of Thais' death (she ascends into heaven), Athanael realizes that he is in love with Thais, and is ruined by her death. She, alternatively, has achieved eternal happiness.
Extremely operatic in nature, this story seems the perfect fit for Lacroix's designs. How fitting for the life of luxury a courtesan leads to be designed by a couture designer. We see here, especially in the first scene, the signature juxtapositions of this designer. Thais enters in a gold, extremely fitted floor length gown with every embellishment possible (while staying tasteful). She also wears a pink "shrug" of sorts, adding another layer of diva for Thais to play with. The combination of gold and fuchsia is quite visually striking, certainly not for a timid woman. Also, the fabrics, in Lacroix fashion, are extremely luxe (silks, etc) and provide a lot of structure, and even seeming uncomfortability for someone wearing this costume in real life; it's no jeans and a tshirt. Thais wears this gown when she enters the opera, into a party of admirers. She is certainly putting on a show that is larger than life.
The final costume is one of the most stunning, artistically, of the entire opera. Made entirely of starched paper/ fabric, this costume is fitted to Thais and covers her almost from head to toe. While still mobile for Ms. Fleming on stage (breathing, singing, etc), the gown enables Thais to look like a statue. At this point in the opera, as she is ascending into Heaven, this particular production really portrays Thais as a goddess, already having achieved her ascent among the non-human. Looking almost entirely unwearable by human standards, this gown I think very successfully achieves a look of otherworldliness.
Thais is just one of many productions designed by Mr. Lacroix, but has been brought to focus by the star power of Renee Fleming, and also by the Live in HD broadcast of the opera done by the Met.
I encourage everyone to watch this stunning opera, and also to notice the other production values throughout a performance aside from the performers themselves. The more you expose yourself to various productions, the more you will be able to appreciate a good production from a bad production, or even a mediocre production.
We are artists. We all have something to say, whether it is onstage or off. Just because we are not the diva of the evening does not mean that we don't have something extremely meaningful and legitimate to say.
So as has become my M.O., this is a call to action. Appreciate the work that is done behind the scenes, and don't just throw the costumes and sets by the wayside. Having taken set and costume design courses, it is not as easy as it looks. Who are we to so strongly disrespect someone else's work; if you hate it that much, take up costume design yourself and show us what a really meaningful production is. If nothing else comes of it, you may just appreciate a little more all the work that goes into designing and costuming and entire show!
In the meantime though, let's appreciate the brilliant artistry that we occasionally get to experience happening on stage together, whether it be performances, costumes, sets, or hopefully all of the above.
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