Hello. It’s Friday. Time for the musings of our friend, ID Collection’s Jim Williamson. Does anyone know if today is a national holiday for a specific cocktail? I only ask because I missed National Margarita Day because I had plans with friends to get sushi. Somehow sushi and a ’rita just don’t go any better together than Lohan and Taylor. But not all things that don’t initially seem like they go well together turn out to be bad news. I would have never thought an absinthe and chocolate confection from Chocolate Secrets would be good. But now that I have sampled it—along with a dozen other delicious flavors—it has now become a weekly staple in my diet.
I recently had the pleasure of dining at Soho House with Sacha Walckhoff of Christian Lacroix. I asked him about how he mixes things and creates such wild-but-awesome color combinations and a sense of play with textures and patterns. Obviously, he is an amazing talent. He’s been in the fashion business longer than my scotch has spent aging. He also has an immense archive of beautiful things to choose from, so he’s able to remain true to the heritage of Lacroix’s 1980s exuberance while pushing the look into the future. He wants to make the company profitable, and from everything I am seeing and reading, he is doing just that.
For the most part, couture houses don’t make money on couture itself. Those beautiful creations are works of art, but when you create something so fabulous, it’s difficult to calculate the costs of the world’s finest materials and the hundreds of hours spent on a single garment by some of the most skilled craftsmen in the business. While unprofitable, the couture does set the tone of the house.
For his latest fabric collection for Designers Guild, Sacha pulled inspiration from both the Lacroix of the past and his vision for the future. Gaze upon his Carnet Andalous Collection, and just image that you have just arrived from Paris with your new love interest—a person who just happens to have beautiful estate outside of Seville. Sounds pretty good to me, although I have never been to Seville. Now, thanks to Lacroix, it is definitely on my travel list. Until I make it, I think I will just order many yards of his delectable creations and make my own Andalous dreams.
So here’s to Friday and mixing things up!
