The Savannah College of Art and Design SCAD, features an amazing exhibition of costumes designed by Arles-native Christian Lacroix at its SCAD FASH Lacoste museum space in Provence until 1st November.

The exhibition features 50 dramatic costumes created by iconic French fashion designer Christian Lacroix for the Comédie-Française’s acclaimed production of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. Curated by fashion historian and curator Olivier Saillard and organised by Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH museums, the exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Comédie-Française.

“The work of Christian Lacroix is expansive — of all the couturiers of his time and of the past, he is the only one to have bent a discipline, to imagine theater costumes according to his haute couture expertise. His own haute couture is not uncompromising. It accepts all hierarchies, the unfinished and excellence that can be found in flowery fields. The costumes Lacroix invented for the Comédie-Française as part of Peer Gynt speak to this haute couture freedom — their beauty is appreciated because it is in flight.” Olivier Saillard said.

Lacroix’s passion for history, folklore, art, and costume is testament in this intimate presentation of ensembles for Peer Gynt. His childhood love of sketching led him to study art history in Paris, where he enrolled at institutions like the Sorbonne and École du Louvre. While in school, he began working as an illustrator for fashion houses before becoming an assistant to Guy Paulin. After going on to work for Jean Patou, Lacroix started his own eponymous house in the mid-1980s. His collections burst onto the fashion scene with a sense of gaiety, decadence, and fun that would become tantamount to his work. After a decades-long run, the powerhouse designer sold the house in 2009 to realize his early dreams of becoming a museum curator as well as a costumer. Mixing and matching global inspiration with the past, Lacroix has made his mark in fashion history through his opulently theatrical designs.

Lacroix’s longstanding collaboration with the Comédie-Française began more than 25 years ago with the famed theater company’s production of Phèdre, followed by productions of Cyrano, Lucrèce, Roméo et Juliette, and the spring 2012 production of Peer Gynt, among many others. If you’re in Provence, then don’t miss this incredible show.

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