Break out the Bolly, the launch of Lacroix sunglasses starts the warm-up for the return of Absolutely Fabulous later this year
With news that Ab Fab will be back on our screens in December, there’s not a dry eye amongst fashion kids and highly overemotional – yet fabulously dressed – ladies alike. And if that wasn’t enough there’s more news that’ll push fashion fans over the edge (cue jazz hands), Christian Lacroix’s new sunglasses for autumn/winter 2011 just hit the London shores! What could be more appropriate, sweetie-darling, than the natural pairing of the two? After all, for five seasons Patsy and Eddie tirelessly dedicated shout-outs to their favourite Paris couturier and immortalised fashion’s pet catchphrase, “It’s Lacroix, darling!”
“Christian loved Absolutely Fabulous and he made two special appearances on the show,” Sacha Walckhoff, Creative Director at Lacroix, tells i-D Online. “We had a lot a fun, but you had to watch the English version because the synchronised French one was really bad. I guess that kind of humour is quite British, which is also the beauty of it”, Walckhoff explains. The Swiss designer worked with Christian Lacroix for seventeen years, overseeing the ready-to-wear, jeans, knitwear and men’s lines, before the couture house faced liquidation in 2009, followed by the departure of Christian Lacroix himself.
While the haute couture line was terminated and all other lines put on hold, the company’s licensing deals continued under the ownership of Falic Fashion Group. Second-in-charge at Lacroix since 1992, Sacha Walckhoff was appointed Creative Director. Slowly but soundly, Walckhoff began restoring the different corners of label and re-launched the menswear line with a much-praised collection for autumn/winter 2011. But like Patsy and Eddie taught us, Lacroix is also synonymous with highly glamorous and somewhat eccentrically chic women. “The idea was to have a pair of sunglasses for each Lacroix heroine: all those girls who inspire our collections day by day.”
“Our inspiration was endless and we had a lot of fun designing them. But above all, we wanted all of them to be easily wearable,” Walckhoff says. So is it alright to wear sunglasses inside or at night, like a true Ab-Fab’er? “Yes,” says Walckhoff, “Especially if you are Mr Lagerfeld or Olivier Zahm, with whom I am shooting our second eyewear collection right now!”
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Justin Borbely
Styling: Anthony Stephinson
