Christian Lacroix Spring 2009

For Spring, Christian Lacroix finally delivered the thing his ringside fans have been hankering after for ages: a collection that transmitted the fantasy of his haute couture into ready-to-wear. For the first third of this collection, at least, there was everything a young girl could dream of owning from the Lacroix canon: bejeweled toreador pants and capes, boned and beribboned pouf-shouldered dresses, frothy leg-of-mutton-sleeved Edwardiana jackets, sexy bustled skirts, and deliciously light-handed draped chiffon prints. All of that bounced onto the runway liberally strewn with the giant carnation corsages and artfully placed bows every Lacroix lover will recognize as his inimitable signatures.