Christian Lacroix and the Tale of Sleeping Beauty playfully intermingle the upbringing of French fashion icon Christian Lacroix with the story of Sleeping Beauty. The stories of the two main characters barely overlap – Lacroix’s childhood and rise in the fashion world is scarcely outlined, while Beauty’s story is largely intact and unchanged. They seem to be vaguely aware of each other in dreams, and their stories briefly merge at the end. The driving force behind the narrative are the darkly fascinating, abstract, and sometimes beautiful illustrations provided by Lacroix himself.
I have to cop to not liking this as much as I had hoped I would, and that is probably largely based on expectations – which when weren’t met deflated interest. There isn’t any commentary on the world’s of fairy tales and art and their relationship to each other, and I didn’t learn more about Lacroix’s life than I would learn in a five-line bio. I think that if either of those things had been more prevalent in the story, it would have held my attention more. The fact that Beauty and Lacroix’s narratives are largely separate from each other added to the ennui.
Christian Lacroix and the Tale of Sleeping Beauty will almost certainly be pleasing to those who are fans of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Fans of fashion in general, and Lacroix in particular will delight in the lavish designs and artistic stylings found in Lacroix’s dynamic illustrations.
