CHRISTIAN LACROIX MAISON X DESIGN GUILD: “PÊLE – MÊLE COLLECTION (SPRING-SUMMER 2024)

Text and images courtesy of Christian Lacroix Maison

An Homage to Christian Lacroix’s Town in Provence.

“Pêle-Mêle” is the title of the very first book (published in 1992) that tells the story of the early years of Christian Lacroix, from a tender age to when he first founded his Maison de Couture. Christian Lacroix Maison’s Spring-Summer 2024 “Pêle-Mêle” is intended as an homage to his historic town in Provence.

“Trinquetaille”, the multicultural district where Christian grew up – this was the inspiration for a patchwork design recalling the Provençal style quilted fabric known as boutis, stitched with a multitude of Provençal suns. It is printed on both a cotton velour and a wallpaper in shades of terracotta.

“Cotillons” speaks of neighbourhood festivals, where you might see young acrobats dressed as harlequins – just like the ones who inspired Picasso and photographer Lucien Clergue. This joyful print appears on a rustic cotton canvas.

Presented by Som Santoso

Now let’s leave Arles for a moment and discover “Avant le Mistral”, a broad landscape set right in the heart of the Arles countryside, where a storm threatens on a horizon studded with age-old almond trees in bloom.

“En allant aux Baux” represents a 17th century map of the region, unfurled, and embroidered onto a big linen panel. It is also available as a natural grass cloth wallcovering.

From here, we followed a “Roubine”, one of those little freshwater streams that sparkle here and there across the region, using a woven velvet with silky, winding graphic lines to conjure them up.

Sooner or later, all these little rivulets end up in the river that runs through the town, and thus do we continue our guided tour with “Reflet sur le Rhône”. This water-coloured drawing comes in the form of a linen fabric and a natural fabric pasted onto wallpaper.

In the marshes alongside the river Rhône grow magnificent flowers called “Iris des Marais”. Here we have captured them in all their marvellous polychromy, on a background of black cotton sateen and also on a rustic white cotton canvas.

Think of Arles and Vincent Van Gogh immediately springs to mind, with his sumptuous bunches of sunflowers painted to brighten the walls of the room where his friend Paul Gauguin stayed, when he came to visit. “Soleils”, as the French call these mythical flowers, is our version of this ode to friendship, a gleaming Jacquard in dazzling colours which is just as gorgeous on the back as on the front.

“Hortus” is a park in Arles, inspired by the town’s ancient past. For us, it is an extravaganza of fruit and flowers, whose mixing and mingling recalls the Roman banquets of yore. The design is printed on a linen fabric and a panoramic wallpaper.

Last but not least, “SurréArles’isme” is a riotous fresco of wild and imaginary flowers panorama. And it is also an ode to a town that is constantly reinventing itself, yet somehow manages to remain the same, attracting ever more artists and talents as time goes by.