Christian Lacroix Spring 1999 Couture Collection

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 1999 collection was originally presented in Paris on January 19, 1999, in the ballroom of the Grand Hotel.

“Spring ’99 was both abstract and romantic, graphic and naive. A bit like 19th-century dolls, with destructured/restructured shapes, exaggerated fake proportions, a lot of tulle, and ribbons, with a lot of special textiles and craftsmanship details.”
—Christian Lacroix

As Y2K approached, time seemed to compress as designers revisited the history of fashion; this was especially the case at the couture, the domain of fantasy. Christian Lacroix, an art historian who came to Paris from his native Arles with the intention of becoming a curator, seemed to have been looking closely at paintings by artists obsessed with dress when designing his spring 1999 collection. Beribboned bodices recalled those worn by the rosy-cheeked beauties depicted by François Boucher or Nicolas Lancret, and a citrus yellow and black ensemble could have walked out of a picture by James Tissot.

“The bride was inspired by Neapolitan santons in wired drépés of satin taffetas and chiffon.” —Christian Lacroix

In 1990 Vogue had declared Lacroix the “king of color,” and he proved he still merited the title here with gowns in hues so saturated you could almost taste them. Some of these electrifying color combinations were only revealed when a model turned and showed the back of her dress. This was 360-degree romance, and it carried on to the final look, a draped dress that could have been copied from a Zurbarán painting—or one of the angels guarding the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Neapolitan Baroque crèche.