Pieces of a Pattern

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Christian Lacroix is one of the world's most admired and influential fashion designers, the embodiment of the style and glamour of French haute couture. This is his own account of his life and career, from his childhood in Arles to his arrival in Paris, where he was to meet his wife and partner, Francoise. Here his career from his first tentative steps at the House of Patou to his own label within the space of six years. In Lacroix's world visual imagery counts far more than words. Hundreds of lavish color and monochrome illustrations strikingly illuminate his story. Selected from Lacroix's sketchpads, his diary, his pinboard, and old family albums, they are interspersed with vividly remembered impressions that were the sources and springboards of his creativity--a mesmerizing Beaton portrait, the soft drapery of an Arlesienne costume, the feline face of an actress, the brio of a matador cape. Many sketches drawn especially for this publication decorate and complement the narrative. Fashion design, says Lacroix, is an area in which "processes beyond the reach of intellect are at work." Here we see into these processes. Memory, associations, and visual patterns from the conscious and the unconscious mind have fed his imagination to produce some of the most glorious and inventive designs of haute couture today.