We caught up with Sacha Walckhoff, Creative Director at Christian Lacroix to tell us about his latest collection for Designers Guild.

DG – With each launch there seems to always be a story behind each collection, Belles Rives is your fourth collection for Designers Guild, is there a story behind these new designs?

SW – Yes, we love to tell stories – this time, it is about the Riviera , la “côte d’azur “ as we say in French . Our life style collection is now present all over the world and we wanted our customers to have a glimpse of what we French, do best! Glamour , love and …scandals and the Riviera and all the celebrities who made its fame was the perfect place to pick for this! I love that story of the famous actress from the fifties Zaza Gabor. Once, she arrived in Cannes for the film festival wearing a light dress and a leopard fur coat …the temperature was quite high that day and before getting out of the plane to greet the photographers and the journalists, she got rid of the dress but kept the leopard coat on … « why did you take off your dress and not the coat ?» asked the stunned journalist. « Honey …a leopard coat is much more unique than any dress in the world ! » she replied! Our cut velvet leopard fabric ‘Santo Sospir’ is partly inspired by this story.

DG – The ‘Atelier’ collection features lots of beautiful plain textures, was this inspired from your work as a fashion designer and do you have a favourite fabric to work with?

SW – Yes, it has been inspired by our Haute Couture atelier which used to be located on rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris. In that kind of atelier you always had Satin, Velvet and Tweeds to work on Dresses and Tailleurs, but above all, I do really love the ‘Kabig’ which is a wool cloth used for the sailors coats and also perfect for a luxurious woman’s Paletot jacket…and now for your sofa!

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