Fashionably Late
(NEW YORK) Christian Lacroix took a big bite out of the Big Apple on Thursday night when he injected his elegant eclecticness into a cocktail party and dinner to celebrate his recently opened East 57th Street store. "Yes, I know I am a bit late," he said--the store opened a few months ago--as Hunt Slonem, Muffie Potter Aston, Tina Laakkonen (his former stylist at Pucci), Jim Gold, and models Caroline Trentini, Hana Soukupova, Emina Cunmulaj, and Vlada Roslyakova, sporting a newly-shorn haircut, swilled cocktails in the slightly overheated store. "Things move so quickly in New York--almost too quickly sometimes--but blame it on my dislike for airplanes. I prefer the train."
Indeed, it had been four years since Lacroix was last in the States (when he received an Alliance Française award). But regardless, he felt at home on what was easily the city's warmest night since October--even if, as he admitted with a laugh, he didn't quite know all his guests. "I don't own any Lacroix," admitted couture aficionado Marjorie Gubelmann, just out of earshot from Lacroix president Nicolas Topiol. "But I do have Lacroix china. Espresso cups!" Samantha Boardman Rosen, who wore Lacroix haute couture to her 2006 wedding celebration at the Four Seasons restaurant, had never met the designer. "Now that I'm done having babies, I can invest in some couture," she smiled. "His work is truly decadent art."
Later at the Gramercy Park Hotel's rooftop deck, Lacroix (staying just a few floors below) hosted a lush dinner for 130 spread across 13 tables boasting silver hammered candlesticks with tall white candles, silver branch stemware, and custom lighting in gradients of pink that lasted well past midnight.
Enjoying his solitude before the melee, Lacroix spent much of the cocktail hour snapping away at the table settings with his digital camera. Naturally, his signature pink carnations, along with pink roses, were featured en masse as centerpieces atop glass urns. "It's from Spanish bullfighting," he explained of his fascination with the otherwise quotidian flower. And for that night, his orchid, peony, and ranunculus-loving fan base adopted the floral. "He makes it look totally him, totally chic," said Alex Kramer. "Carnations get a bad rap because they're the flower guys wore on their suits at the prom," laughed Minnie Mortimer.
Anh Duong and Christine Suppes wore Lacroix Haute Couture, the former crediting the designer for bringing her to New York. "I first met him when he was Jean Patou," she recalled, having worn Lacroix Haute Couture for her wedding. "I came here to model for him in 1987 when I was dating Julian Schnabel and I never left." Plenty pleased with their prêt-a-porter looks were Amanda Brooks, Helen Schifter, Dayssi Olarte de Kanaovs, and Jessica Stam. Fashion chameleon Eva Lorenzotti, meanwhile, wore her love for Lacroix around her neck in the form of a 10-year-old Lacroix knitted scarf that she paired with her Zero Maria Cornejo dress. "I look very Kentucky Derby," Brooks laughed of her tea-length dress, which caught the eye of Michelle Trachtenberg, in town for a role on Gossip Girl. Schifter's pre-dinner activities centered around getting her friend Silas Chou's two unexpected Russian friends seated at her tightly packed table. "They just flew in on a private jet," Schifter doted, table hopping in search of a cigarette for the group. "We're all sharing it," she said. "It's ok; I don't inhale anyway."
Sarah Jessica Parker arrived with her interior designer Eric Hughes and quickly engaged in conversation with the night's other Christian--Louboutin. She wore the same Martin Margiela top and jacket and Bitten pants she sported at an earlier taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. "When I was on the Place Vendôme filming my fragrance commercial, I wore Lacroix, and not only did Christian personally deliver my dress, but he stayed with me through the night," she said admiringly over bites of black truffle mushroom ravioli, sea bass, and mojito cake with orange sorbet. Kim Raver exercised her French. "It feels like Paris in here," the Lipstick Jungle star told her host. "My husband is French so I had to learn the language; my in-laws don't speak English!"
In town for 48 hours, Lacroix spent the day touring the art galleries in Chelsea and popped into the Comme des Garçons shop. He also managed to steer clear of any restaurant bound to sabotage his newly-svelte figure. "No more French fries!" he laughed, adding that he'll be back soon. "Every city has adopted a piece of New York, but the views here are still unrivaled."
JIM SHI
