PIECES OF A PATTERN: LACROIX BY LACROIX (THAMES AND HUDSON, $554) HE hit Paris in an explosion of colour, drama and ruinously expensive luxury in July 1987 and the fashion heavens opened, pouring a seemingly endless deluge of women who looked like escapees from the Paris Opera, the Arabian Nights and the bull-ring.
Yes, the drought had finally ended and never had a designer's timing been more perfect, observes Patrick Mauries in his introduction to Pieces Of A Pattern .
Just as everyone was beginning to despair that the ''minimalism fit for Armageddon'' foisted on them by the Japanese would never end, that the only excitement they could look forward to was the ''cultural anarchy'' provided by the British, the saviour arrived - ''a sensualist addicted to fabrics, captivated by different materials and motifs, aware of the history of fashion...'' Christian Lacroix, proclaims this book, ''is now the world's most admired and influential fashion designer, the embodiment of the style and glamour of French haute couture''.
''Kaiser'' Karl Lagerfeld and even the deposed Yves Saint Laurent might have a few words to say about that, but never mind. What can't be denied is that Lacroix has a mighty cult following. But an autobiography after less than six years in the arena? Swallow your cynicism. In fashion, a season is a millennium, every minute of it a fight for survival - a fight that has never been more bloody as the recession claws at Europe - so let's hear it from Lacroix.
What a visual treat this volume is, with its delightful sketches and collages - nearly all done by the author - fashion illustrations and photographs, even pictures of the Paris apartment Lacroix and his wife Francoise have made their haven.
Each chapter is done in one of the colours he so adores and should be required reading for every student of fashion.
The first thing to understand about Christian Lacroix, born in 1950 in the village of Trinquetaille - in Arles in southern France, not far from the Spanish border - is that he is overwhelmingly a product of his time and place.