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" You could forgive Christian Lacroix for feeling depressed. In December 2009, the designer left the fashion house that bears his name after more than 22 years at its helm. The writing had been on the wall for some time. The label operated without a profit and, in 2005, its original backer, LVMH , sold the firm to the Falic Fashion Group, whose success derives from duty-free retailing. The glamorous and cerebral Lacroix found himself part of the same corporation as Daddy Yankee fragrances and Urban Decay cosmetics. Today, Maison Christian Lacroix continues without him. No longer, however, does it produce the women&amp;#039;s ready-to-wear and haute couture that made it famous. Instead, the house launched a menswear line this past January with a collection that bears little relationship to the joyous, flamboyant style that has long been Lacroix&amp;#039;s trademark.  The designer himself may observe such developments with a jaded, skeptical eye, but that does not stop him from being upbeat. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m very good,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;at moving on.&amp;quot; Having just turned 60, he also has little time for regrets. &amp;quot;Christian has entered a period of hyperactivity,&amp;quot; notes his longtime friend and former associate Jean-Jacques Picart. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like a second youth.&amp;quot;  Indeed, it&amp;#039;s difficult to keep up with the man. One day this past summer he was sketching the costumes for a Frankfurt production of Francesco Cilea&amp;#039;s opera Adriana Lecouvreur. The next he was off to Berlin to work on Leonard Bernstein&amp;#039;s Candide. Additional projects include the costumes for a new version of the ballet La Source, which debuts at Paris&amp;#039;s Palais Garnier this month, and for Madame Butterfly in Hamburg and Don Pasquale in Paris in 2012. Lacroix is also decorating the interiors of a hotel in Bangkok for the Sofitel group, has just designed a new tramway for the town of Montpellier, and serves as the artistic adviser for the French mint.   Then there&amp;#039;s his debut furniture collection for the Italian mosaic manufacturer Sicis, which launched at the Milan Furniture Fair last April. For Sicis, Lacroix was an obvious choice. &amp;quot;Mosaic is all about color, and Christian is famous for the way he embellishes and plays with hues,&amp;quot; says the firm&amp;#039;s president, Maurizio Leo Placuzzi. The collaboration seemed predestined for the designer, as well. Lacroix&amp;#039;s great-grandparents discovered the mosaics of a Gallo-Roman villa under their house in his native Arles. He has also long been drawn to Empress Theodora, whose effigy is in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, where Sicis&amp;#039;s headquarters are based. That image was featured in the first book on historical fashion Lacroix acquired, back in 1957. &amp;quot;Even as a child, I never stopped drawing her,&amp;quot; he recalls.  Not surprisingly, the sixth-century wife of the Byzantine emperor Justinian became his inspiration for the collection\u2014a chair even bears her name. The daughter of a bear trainer, she was renowned for her beauty and wit (as well as her expertise as a courtesan) and reportedly suppressed revolts, exposed political corruption, and expanded women&amp;#039;s rights in her day. &amp;quot;She was quite a controversial character,&amp;quot; says Lacroix. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m surprised nobody&amp;#039;s ever made a film about her life.&amp;quot;  Lacroix revamped her image for the 21st century and incorporated it on the front of the Theodora chair in the form of a mosaic medallion. &amp;quot;She was no icon of charm or glamour,&amp;quot; he explains, &amp;quot;so I gave her a makeover.&amp;quot;  The rest of the collection is pure Lacroix, with an eclectic assortment of chairs, tables, and poufs in extravagant shapes that can be mixed and matched (or even mismatched). Most sport a dazzling array of fabrics from Leli\u00E8vre. There are also fanciful touches of lace, embroidery, braiding, and studs. And a selection of light fixtures are trimmed with skirts of fringe in gold, burgundy, blue, and cream. The aim, says Lacroix, was to imagine how a modernday Theodora would decorate her home.  The designs are fittingly theatrical. After all, Lacroix initially dreamed of becoming a set designer for the likes of Luchino Visconti, and he concedes that he&amp;#039;s always been more passionate about costumes than fashion. According to Picart, there are only two times of the year his friend misses his past life\u2014in January and July, during the haute couture presentations. Otherwise, Lacroix seems perfectly content: &amp;quot;If someone had told me about my life when I was a child, I think I would have died of happiness.&amp;quot; Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;Vive Lacroix!.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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