Editor’s note: Vogue Runway is celebrating “the most wonderful time of the year” by adding six magical—and newly digitized—1990s haute couture shows to our archive. Christian Lacroix’s spring 1994 collection was originally presented on January 16, 1996, at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris.
“Spring ’94 was a mix and match of French Revolution and Directoire styles with 1940 fashions—my two favorite periods in costume history—in ’90s proportions.” —Christian Lacroix
“Today, femininity is a weapon; it’s a force.” So said Christian Lacroix about his spring 1994 show to Vogue. Despite a few borrowed-from-the-boys nautical elements, and the casting of the androgynous and shaved-head model Eve Salvail, the collection was anything but hard-edged. In fact, it served as a brief respite from calamity. An earthquake in Los Angeles and an attack on the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan were among the events that took place in the buildup to the season, leading Lacroix to include the following lines, quoted by the Associated Press, in his program notes: “In these violent and desperate times, the only salvation lies in sincerity and a total loyalty towards one’s passions. Couture is my passion.”
Lacroix channeled his passions in a number of directions here, as he explored, per Vogue, “three stylistically liberated times in history—1800, the mid-1940s, and 1980.” You really have to dig for references to the “greed decade,” in which Lacroix made his debut, but the ’40s clearly influenced the hair and makeup.
“The bride was inspired by an 18th-century engraving of the Virgin Mary, and was embroidered with fabrics and real stones François Lesage, my godfather, gifted me, and which are still in my bedroom.” —Lacroix
Lacroix’s ardor for historical references equaled, if not topped, his passion for couture, as is expressed in the penultimate bridal look featuring a floral-stripe and beaded corset worn with a metallic lace underskirt on top of which was another skirt of a pale plaid with lace appliqués over which skim embroidered songbirds. Call it a cut-and-paste assemblage, the couture way. Fantastical in another mode were the more contemporary yet still dreamy lingerie looks that move beyond the ubiquitous 1990s slip dress.
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