Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The prestigious French fashion house Christian Lacroix is facing bankruptcy. Anchor Marco Werman speaks about the bankruptcy and its implications with Hilary Alexander, fashion director for The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: Yet more evidence the world of global finance is on shaky ground comes to us from Paris.  The prestigious French fashion house Christian Lacroix is facing bankruptcy, and a deadline for buyers to deposit checks that would spare it that fate passed this past weekend.

Hilary Alexander is the fashion director for the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London.  And Hilary, we just heard a report about Dubai’s financial woes, and this may be related.  The front runner to buy Christian Lacroix was until recently a sheikh from the United Arab Emirates too.  What can you tell us about that?

HILARY ALEXANDER:  Well, all I know is that it was one of the rumors that was spinning around Paris in the wake of Lacroix’s last and very emotional haute couture show in July.  And of course, everyone was hoping that a fairy godfather would arrive, gallop in on a white steed and rescue him, but it appears, for the moment at least, that that is not going to happen.

WERMAN: And was this Christian Lacroix’s last best hope?

ALEXANDER:  It would seem so for the moment.  He’s not been in a terribly good financial position for a couple of years.  He’s a very, very flamboyant designer and although he had in the past customers such as Nicole Kidman, Madonna, even Diana, Princess of Wales when she was alive, he seemed never really to reach the great heights of some of the other big luxury brands, such as Dior, for example, or Gauthier or Chanel.

WERMAN: Christian Lacroix was kind of a driving force in 1980s fashion in particular.  Why was his last fashion show so emotional?

ALEXANDER:  His last show was very emotional because a lot of his friends, relatives, his wife, clients, all turned up.  People were just openly crying.  The famous embroiderer, Lesage, was in tears.  All the staff were in tears, because of course they’ve worked with him for 20 years, and nobody, I think, could quite believe that this really was going to be the last we would see of Christian Lacroix.

WERMAN:  Of course, we don’t know if it is the last yet, but the fact that Christian Lacroix and his house were looking for a savior somewhere in the United Arab Emirates maybe shows the desperation that they face.  How important has new money from places like Dubai and the United Arab Emirates been to the fashion industry in recent years?

ALEXANDER:  Well, I would say in the last sort of 15 years, ten to 15 years, the Middle Eastern customer and then more recently the Russian, Chinese and Indian clients have become extremely important to most of the big couture houses, because they tend to have the ready money and they order large.

WERMAN: You know, people losing their jobs here in this country, around the world, are not likely to shed many tears for the decline of an expensive fashion house like Christian Lacroix.  Have you noticed changes in the way people who read your newspaper, for example, the Daily Telegraph, the way they perceive the fashion industry?  Is it any different since the financial crisis hit last year?

ALEXANDER:  Not really.  In fact, it seems to be quite the contrary.  As I’m walking around the traditional shopping areas, the stores are absolutely packed and people seem to be spending. I think people feel the need for a little bit of retail therapy.

WERMAN:  If they’re not buying haute couture, what are the haute couturiers going to do?

ALEXANDER: Well, traditionally, the haute couture business does not really survive purely on its clients alone, who may in some cases number a few dozen.  The haute couture business is a kind of  wonderful shimmering fairytale flagship that provides much needed publicity for all the other products that the brand sells, such as perfumes, scarves and of course handbags, which in many cases account for 50 percent of the income of a brand.

WERMAN:  Well, apparently not enough retail therapy right now to bail out the sinking house of Lacroix.

ALEXANDER:  I know.  We will miss him, because he was a sort of slightly madcap Bohemian who obeyed only his own rules of dress and that was quite refreshing.

WERMAN:  Hilary Alexander, the fashion director for the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London, thanks very much.

ALEXANDER:  Thank you, Marco.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.