Where does one go in sequined overalls and a mink? And when one arrives, can one sit down without ruining ones ensemble?

So many dead animaux, so little pretty.

Think this coat is all about strong shoulders? You may have a point.

Beautifully cut, with art deco details — an opaque version would be heavenly.

Are the hair and the thigh-bands a nod to Leeloo? Also — pay close attention to those gloves, which are clear on the inside of the arm and velvety on the outside.

The man knows drama; this coat is a spectacle.

This gown would be at home on the set of Serenity or on any inter-galactic red carpet.

If you like your silver screen goddess looks straight up, no chaser, this is it. Maybe not the most inventive dress, but stunning as it channels the '30s.

Here's where the "whimsy"comes in — those are film strips on her bodice.

Someone's been watching a lot of old movies.

What is this? Part Chrysler building, part Airstream trailer, part Pontiac Silver Streak, this (swimsuit? leotard? playsuit?) has Lady GaGa's name on it.

Attitude not included.

More steam-age meets space age. The structure is reminiscent of Thierry Mugler's motorcycle or Metropolis bustiers. But softer, with bling-shaped hips and shoulders.

Even if you wouldn't wear any of this, it's hard not to appreciate the fact that there is capital D Drama in every detail.

The silhouette here is very similar to that of the Diva Plavalaguna.

The Diva would not have worn a baby-doll dress with plastic platform shoes, though, would she? Luckily, in space no one can hear you scream.

Earlier: 51-Year-Old Gallic Supermodel Walks For Gaultier
Gaultier Fashion Show
Velvet D'Amour: "My Quest Is To Diversify Notions Of Modern Beauty"
The Fur Flies At Jean-Paul Gaultier
Fashion Show: Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier's Biker-Beekeeper-Pirate-CorpseBride Chic

[Images via Getty.]

Since its founding in 1987, the house of Christian Lacroix has never turned a profit. Lacroix himself has been working without pay for months. The current owners, Florida's Falic group, revealed a restructuring plan to staff on Friday that would cut the workforce from 124 to 12 by the end of this month, and effectively reduce the house to a licensing operation, trading on Lacroix's name and reputation in order to sell men's shirts and silk scarves. In order to avoid this Doomsday scenario, an angel investor would have to step forward. The house is seeking letters of intent now.


Perhaps it's fitting, then, that the collection presented in such a somber situation should be done mainly in dark colors — black and navy, with notable accents in purple, metallics, and reds. But it's not as simple as dark times dictating dark colors: Lacroix chose to work in a limited palette to showcase what he called "the classic repertory of the house, what is left, the hard disk."


And Lacroix's signature is clear in the use of tone-on-tone embroidery in the traditional Provençal style the Arles-born designer has always favored (like in that cape), the focus on backless dresses, the continued obsession with bare shoulders, and of course in the draping.


It's truly a great talent who, with no money to speak of, can conjure such perfect outfits as these out of the creative ether. This chiffon blouse, with its gorgeous broad-shouldered jacket with the right military touch, cream miniskirt, and the punctuation of the bright glove — I can't wait till fall to pull an ensemble like this together myself.


And no Lacroix show would be complete without a pouf skirt.


Or, for that matter, a coat dress with the 80s boxiness that's come back in style.


Held at the Salon des Boisiers in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in front of an audience of only 280 people, this couture collection may be Christian Lacroix's last. If an investor for the company is not found, notwithstanding the buyer interest they might attract, these creations will never even enter production.


The show demonstrated the depth of the fashion community's goodwill. Hair and makeup teams and models all reduced their rates. (Unlike in New York, where designers pay models principally in trade, in France fashion houses are required by law to pay their show models some amount of cash.)


The food was donated, and Lacroix's own staff, as well as the embroiderers and lacemakers, worked for free. The creations were cut from bolts of fabric the house already had on hand.


Speaking of fabric choices, at first glance, this dress stands out from the rest for being a print among a sea of solid colors, but in fact it shares the same graphic quality of the line as a whole. Lacroix compared his collection to brush strokes.


And it's perhaps even more beautiful from behind.


At its conclusion, the Telegraph reports that many members of the team, and of the audience, wept. Master embroiderer Jean-François Lesage, Lacroix's good friend, also sobbed openly.


The audience gave a standing ovation.


Here's to many seasons more.

The recession has already spawned its own language of buzzwords, as if the right combination of meaningful letters whispered in the consumer's ear will suddenly unlock her wallet: there's "investment" fashion, "green" fashion, the "new vintage." (That one sold out, so perhaps Stefano Pilati's on to something.) "Ethical" fashion. We're told there will be "slow" fashion, to match our slow food. There's the fantasy that we'll all start making our own clothes, and the competing theories that we'll have more of our clothes made in America — or that we'll continue having more made overseas.

What this confusion of language speaks to is the underlying truth that this recession will permanently change the apparel industry — and the profound uncertainties that still cloud what those changes will be. How we dress, how we shop, how we are marketed to, where our clothes come from and who makes them are all up for reconsideration. The propagation of inanities like the concept of "investment" dressing is just evidence that even most industry experts are only grasping at straws, like the rest of us.

Cathy Horyn was asked to speak on fashion and the economy last week at an event for Citi's Women & Co., a $125-a-year members-only women's professional organization run by the bank. Horyn's speech, a "trimmed" version of which she later posted to her blog, and then chased with more thoughts yesterday, amounted to a kind of fashion state of the union.

Horyn gets down to business by assessing the state of fashion before this recession began — and noting how it's different than past periods of economic instability. The downturn of the early 2000s, she argues, barely registered in fashion (in 2001, consumer spending actually increased). The late 90s and the early 2000s, taken together, were a period of remarkable consolidation and expansion in the rag trade. As Horyn explains,

This was the era when luxury groups were being formed — when Saint Laurent sold out to Gucci, when Bernard Arnault hired John Galliano and Marc Jacobs to shake up Dior and Vuitton respectively, when Prada made a bid for global power by buying Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, and when PPR eventually took control of Gucci...This shift from a largely craft-based, family-owned culture to a brand management culture mirrored what was happening in the financial markets, in the explosion in the art markets, and the excitement surrounding new architecture, particularly in countries like China and Dubai. Dress codes and divisions of all kinds have been breaking down for years — we scarcely notice when someone mixes high-low elements. But the late 90s and early 2000s saw fashion's ivory tower crumble a little more as designers became ardent marketers — selling the image rather than, in some cases, the clothes. In 2001, Marc Jacobs brought out the Vuitton bag splashed with Stephen Sprouse graffiti. It was followed by the Murakami bag, along with those indelible, digitally enhanced advertising images by the photographers Mert and Marcus. These designs were plainly creative, but the point is these bags were not precious objects. They expressed perfectly the blending of art and commerce, and insolence over elegance — a mood also conveyed in the ironic images of the photographer Juergen Teller, who for more than a decade has created Jacobs' ad campaigns for his own label, including the one of Victoria Beckham as a commoditized celebrity in a shopping bag.

So the recession of 2001 did not throw anyone off the rails.

In many ways, Louis Vuitton is the perfect embodiment of this grading-down of luxury. Until the 80s, Louis Vuitton was just another nice French handbag brand, perhaps known for quality and definitely known for high prices, sure, but not a "fashion" brand with much season-to-season variance, and certainly not a true "luxury" one either. Its coated-canvas monogram wares were widely available and sold in department stores like any other high-end bag; for nearly 20 years, handbags were even made under license for the U.S. market. Then that all changed: Louis Vuitton restricted the sale of its bags to its standalone boutiques, and started aggressively associating its bags with luxury and status through advertising. Naturally, the company raised its prices, which only raised its cachet. But the Speedy 30 that was sold off the shelf at Saks in 1980 is still fundamentally the same bag that runs $700 at Louis Vuitton's own store today. It was a triumph effected with marketing and precious little besides; the bags did not noticeably change or actually become more "luxurious" in their trip up from "good brand" to "luxury brand." But we bought them anyway. Now the deal isn't looking so good.

The stock market crash of 1973 and the long period of stagflation that ensued, as Horyn remarks, is a formal pendant for the current economic situation: a Wall St. crisis that spurred a recession in the "real" economy. But within the apparel industry, too much has changed to allow for any direct analogy between then and now:

In the mid 70[s], fashion was also a relatively small, familial world, with manufacturers forming relationships with stores through expert buyers, and styles evolving slowly. In 1975, a widely popular style was the quilted Chinese jacket, no doubt influenced by the opening of diplomatic relations with China. I am reminded of a conversation I had years ago with the comic Sandra Bernhard, who told me that when she began to do stand-up, she would include as part of her act a reading from Women's Wear Daily's pages. That's how strange and remote the fashion world seemed — those socialite names sounded exotic. By contrast, in the past decade, fashion has become a marketing tool for all kinds of non-fashion products, from stylish cell phones to boutique hotels. And, for better or worse, it has transformed urban neighborhoods, like the Meatpacking District in New York or South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas.

So what is next? And what are the issues on the table, according to Horyn?

[T]his recession is different. Just about every luxury group and upscale retail chain has reported declines, and no category, with the exception perhaps of watches, is performing very well. Private investment in fashion companies is virtually non-existent, and there is very little acquisition activity. Of course, part of the problem is over-capacity — there's just too much stuff around.

That's not strictly true; certain luxury categories are performing well. Hermès leather goods division — the sector of the company that sells $50,000 crocodile handbags with a three-year waiting list — experienced a 21.7% jump in sales during the first quarter of this year. (It's the expensive but comparatively lower-priced goods, like watches and perfumes, that aren't doing so well for the French brand.) But other luxury companies are deeply troubled. Harry Winston and Tiffany's both just released quarterly results that were marked by steep losses.

Horyn sees the industry facing challenges along two primary axes. For one, there will continue to be steep growth in consumer spending in emerging markets, like Asia and South America — especially at the high end of the retail continuum. While the recession might be stalling luxury spending in Japan, it won't stop growth in China and India. It can't. At the couture shows in Paris this January, the happiest man around was the consultant who helps introduce wealthy Indian women to the designers and advises them on which pieces to buy. (And by "piece," we are talking here of $75,000 dresses.) These consumers will be predominantly under 35, and they will want "real" luxury — not $4,000 Prada it-bags that only hold any allure for a season. There's a reason they're going to the Paris couture collections.

As for the rest of us? Horyn thinks the designers that will be successful over the coming years and after the recession will be those who cast off "history-minded" dressing and think instead of, wait for it, the future.

It involves thinking of the consequences of technology, and relating these changes more imaginatively to how we dress, how we shop — the design of stores, the potential of online magazines and stores. A "sartorial consciousness," to use Quentin Bell's term, is not limited to moral indignation; it also applies to the raw materials, the energy sources, and labor practices used in making a garment. "Green fashion" will become more and more important, and young consumers in particular will expect to see innovation and experimentation in this area — the kind they see in proposals for wind-powered skyscrapers and carbon-free transportation systems. Indeed, I am somewhat surprised that a big luxury group has not had the foresight to create a separate eco-brand of high-quality garments, with a casual yet sophisticated aesthetic. We've seen a number of niche labels, but not one that draws on the brand power and advertising reach of a luxury group.

Perhaps that's exactly what LVMH is thinking in acquiring Edun, and bringing its tremendous marketing resources and distribution network to bear on the organic cotton, sustainably-made fashion line.

Horyn's closing remarks I'll give in full:

a great many people in the fashion world would share the photographer Horst's view that "fashion is a universe full of art and excess where no one thought of the outside world," even though that statement was made about the late 1930s. This may be why many designers do not know how to fully relate the Internet to fashion — imaginatively. I mean only that it took radio roughly 40 years to reach 50 million people, while it took the Internet just 4 years to reach the same number of people.
This is the dynamic that fashion must embrace in the coming years in order to be truly creative and relevant. It's great to talk about "slow fashion" and the value of handcraft in informing our imagination. These qualities will still be important, as Paris is, but imagine the other system of thought that revolts and finally breaks free of the old world.

If that's the future of fashion, I want to be there to see it. Provided it costs less than $700 for a canvas bag.

The Bigger Picture [On The Runway]
Bic Pic: Further Thoughts [On The Runway]

Related:
Green Fashion: Is It More Than Marketing Hype? [Fast Company]
Pilati Unveils YSL "New Vintage" At Barneys [WWD]
Rethinking Outsourcing In The Recession [Forbes]
Apparel Import Slump: U.S. Importing Much Less Clothing Because Of The Recession [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Dress For Less And Less [NY Times]
In The Bag: how Hermès Beats The Recession [ABC News]
LVMH Near A Big Stake In Bono Firm [WSJ]

Earlier:
"Investing" In Your Closet Not Recommended By Actual Investment Experts
New York Times Bets Against Anna Wintour, American Vogue

The gallery takes Barbie from Bob Mackie to Oscar de la Rents (not the best look) and back again. Most of these designs come from the late '90s, when Mattel went wild with designer tie-ins, but a few are earlier (Bob Mackie, anyone?) and we like to think they arose from the designers' organic love of America's plastic sweetheart. As for our faves? Well, Barbie looks classically chic in Dior New Look, but you gotta love her power-suited out in Anne Klein - dowdy hair and all. Can the golden anniversary looks really compare? One things for sure - we can't wait to find out. [VogueUK]

The Good:
Claudia Schiffer, incredibly chic at Armani.
French fashionista Clotilde Courau wearing this New Look number to the riotously retro Dior show is the equivalent of painting your face with the Patriots logo. Except that this looks stunning.
Helen Mirren, power-dressing to good effect at Armani.
Princess Siriwanwarree Nareerat of Thailand, at Dior.
No one - not Kate Moss, not Lauren Hutton - does dressed-down better than Charlotte Gainsbourg, chicest woman in the world. Here at Givenchy.
There's a lot going on here, but Eva Mendes, at Dior, makes it work.
Not going to lie to you, team. I would get a perverse pleasure out of sticking Nuclear Wintour (at Lacroix) in 'Bad.' But looks like today's not going to be that day. Journalistic ethics, etc.
Who but Wonder Woman could pull off this trying shade of lemon? Lynda Carter, Lacroix.


The Bad:
Socialite and fashionista Becca Thrash looks...how do you say?...not great. I think the problem lies in the necklace. Lacroix.
Not my favorite look on Patricia Arquette, at Dior. The belt, the hem...oh, dear.
If model Joanna Preiss (at Dior) was rocking this with shorts, maybe — maybe — it could just be dressed-down. But the diaphanous skirt takes this in a dangerously middle-school direction.
I can imagine the pressure's on when you've been a fashion icon as Marisa Berenson has. And if she just wanted to say, 'screw this I'm done with fashion' it would be one thing. I mean, I'm not looking iconic right now, either. But she's at the Dior show and I'm at my Grandpa's house.
Incidentally, Liv Tyler's movie, The Strangers, is really scary. I dislike her frock, presumably Givenchy.

[Images via Getty, WENN]

• British Fashion Council head Harold Tillman wants to start a "Big Sister" program in which old skool supermodels mentor malnourished up-and-coming mannequins. Leading the way in this admirable new endeavor? Naomi Campbell. [Vogue UK]
  
• Elsewhere in Naomi news, she uses Berlin Fashion Week to point out on the 75th anniversary of Nazi rule that, uh, the industry is still pretty white. [Guardian UK]
  
• Elsewhere in Naomi news, did you know she asked Hugo Chavez about the Spice Girls? [Guanabee]
  
• Karl Lagerfeld: now a teddy bear. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• Remember Zulema? From Project Runway season 2? Who got voted off for a dress which Michael Kors described as looking "like something the town whore's mom who's a real bad sewer made"? Which doesn't even make sense, but whatever? Well, now she's showing her collection during New York Fashion Week... on her MySpace page. [Sassybella]

• Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquiere: really, really good at sports. Who knew? [WWD, 1st item]
• I would actually play sports if it gave me an excuse to wear Chanel. [Vogue UK]
• At Betsey Johnson's Fall/Winter 2008 runway show on Saturday (don't worry, we'll be there), the designer will be celebrating the 30-year anniversary of her line with a retrospective of 15 different looks from the house's history. She'll still be doing a cartwheel at the show's end, another 30-year old tradition, too. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Although many designers (including Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, DVF) are showing a single "green" look at tomorrow night's "Future Fashion" show, the sisters Mulleavy of Rodarte are making their entire collection eco-friendly this season. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The recession might be bad for you, but it's going to be great for the kids looking for work in sweatshops. [Guardian]
• Um, I'm weirdly excited by a website entitled MyTights.com. [FabSugar]
• Thou shalt wear your hair in a low and tight bun for spring. [BellaSugar]
• Mischa Barton's Spring 2008 Keds ads are so much better than the ones she did for Iceberg. [Sassybella]
• Oooh video of Chanel couture collection from 1983. [Sassybella]

The Good:
At Givenchy, Natalia Vodianova looks perfectly put-together in a one-shoulder black dress and the hottest shoes we've seen in ages.
Charlotte Rampling, also at Givenchy, reminds us that when we grow up, we want to be middle-aged Englishwomen who pretend to be French.
Dita von Teese showed up at Jean-Paul Gauliter making plaid posh, not punk.


The Bad::
At Valentino, Blake Lively wears a gorgeous yellow coat. That looks about eight sizes too big. This is probably the worst we've ever seen Lively look.
Eva La Rue's sleeves probably needed a row of their own at the Valentino farewell show.
And if someone can tell us what that pink thing slung around Lucy Liu, also at Valentino is, we'll buy you a pony. (OK, actually we won't.)


The Ugly:
At Valentino, Uma Thurman breaks one of our iron-clad fashion rules: Just say no to lace turtlenecks.

[Images via INF and Bauer-Griffin.]

[Paris, January 21. Image via INF.]

[Paris, France; January 21. Image via INF.]

[Paris, France; January 21. Image via INF]

• Valentino on his final collection, showing tomorrow in Paris: "It's a happy collection. It's not a collection with tears in between." Right, because then it would be a bipolar collection, and at 12 minutes or so that's a lot for any audience to take. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• And in other last-Valentino-show-ever news, the designer included a portrait of himself in the invitation to tomorrow's show and also posed for pictures with every one of the seamstresses who helped create the collection so they could each have a keepsake of him. Aw? [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Volvo created a new ad that for release in Switzerland [Wait, Switzerland is a big enough market to warrant its very own ads? Okay. -Moe] that shows its newest hatchback model being surrounded by Karl-look-a-likes snapping its photo. The real Karl: not amused! "They think I should be flattered, perhaps. It's not the chicest car I am promoting — without knowing I did it." Snap. [WWD, 3rd item]

• Abercrombie and Fitch's new underwear line Gilly Hicks: sells "underwear, not lingerie," with products that are "more boyish than boudoir," and it fancies itself as the anti-Victoria's Secret. [WWD, sub req'd]
• St. John CEO Glenn McMahon on his outlook for the upcoming year: "[E]verybody is very nervous about 2008." Now there's a feel-good attitude we can get behind! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Ellen Pompeo: "I love to aspire to be on the worst-dressed list!" [Fashion Week Daily]
• ELLE UK appoints Chloe Sevigny as "style adviser." Oy. [Guardian]
• Project Runway alum Malan Breton: still designing! [Chic Report]
• Oh Jesus, why is Madonna doing commercials for Sunsilk hair care products? Because there's a recession on and that $100 million LiveNation contract might not be enough to scrape by? [Sassybella]
• 15-year old Russian designer Kira Plastinina on her target market: "[P]retty much girls like me. They're 14 to 25 years old. They're active, they're — I don't know, cool. Like normal teenage girls, I guess." Suddenly we feel depressed. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Fashion line Chikara was created specifically for women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer. Suddenly, we feel somewhat redeemed. [WWD, sub req'd]

• Karl Lagerfeld has designed a lead figurine of himself, to be sold as a limited edition (1,000 units only) for $300 at Paris boutique Colette. Perfect for teaching etiquette, nutrition, and brand-expansion strategy to your Homies! [WWD, 3rd item]
  
• Agyness Deyn has replaced Drew Barrymore as the face of English designer Giles Deacon's diffusion line, Gold. Anyway, if they were looking for someone less overexposed than Drew Barrymore, they failed. [Vogue UK]
  
• Aw, gender equality! Male models are getting freakishly thin, too. [NY Mag]
  
• Diane von Furstenberg: "Is it clothes that make you glamorous? I don't think so! Glamour is shine, glamour is having an aura, and that is not just about clothes or makeup — I am very often without makeup, and I always look for comfortable clothes. For me, it's important to be who you are, or — even better—to be who you want to be." This doesn't exactly make sense, but at least it seems sincere! [BlackBook]

• The couture shows start in Paris on Monday. And are the suits behind the labels worried about the sucky economy and the fact that, uh, no one can afford couture? Nah, they're just worried it might rain. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Stupid celebrities attending the upcoming couture shows: Ellen Pompeo will be attending Armani "exclusively" (well, excuse us!) and Gossip Girl star Blake Lively is being taken by Vanity Fair to Chanel, Valentino, and Gauliter. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Oh the anticipation, it kills us. A documentary entitled Valentino: The Last Emperor (made by Vanity Fair correspondent Matt Tyrnauer) makes its debut in May at Cannes. [Vogue UK]
• Heidi Klum will be wearing a custom-made John Galliano to the Oscars in February (um, presuming the Oscars actually happen this year), which is somehow supposed to raise awareness for Diet Coke's Heart Truth campaign to educate women about heart disease. Yeah, we don't get it either. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Badgley Mischka are on Martha Stewart today showing bridal looks. Must watch. [Chic Report]
• Okay, not gonna lie: I actually really do want to learn how to get Blake "Serena van der Woodsen" Lively's make-up look. [BellaSugar]
• Barneys New York: Now in Vegas. The store was designed to look a little trashy to, y'know, match the Vegas aesthetic. "There's more glitter here," says Barneys creative director Simon Doonan. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Home Shopping Network is debuting a line of products by Dr. David Watts, which he claims will delay customers' inevitable need for plastic surgery. [WWD, sub req'd]
• American Eagle is starting a line of children's clothing called 77kids, aimed at 2-10-year olds. Just in case you were worried that your kids weren't emblazoned in logos at a young enough age. [WWD, sub req'd]
• It Bag-makers Mulberry just announced that they're going to start doing shoes, also. And today they announced they'll be adding eyewear as well. Way to diffuse the brand, guys. [WWD, 5th item]
• Designer Monique Lhullier's new Bel-Air home is featured on the cover of ELLE Decor this month. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Sass & Bide is doing a diffusion line called Vie that is supposedly reasonably priced. [Okay, note to self: Ask Jen what a "diffusion line" is. Is it like a "bridge" line, only with more particles? -Moe] Pieces range from $63-$260. Your call whether that's reasonably priced or not. [FabSugar]
• Yay for the Gap for making their new CFO a woman. We wish Sabrina Simmons well in her new position. [The Street]
• Vanessa Williams on her retail therapy: "It's much more fun buying shoes at night, after dinner and a few drinks. It just doesn't hurt as much." Note to self: Always get drunk before Prada. [Fashion Week Daily]

[Rome, Italy; July 8. Images via Style.com]