As I left a Paris cafe the other night, instead of the usual “Bonsoir, Madame,” the waiter called after me, “Happy Fashion Week!” as if we were all celebrating a national holiday.
Maybe we were. Fashion is more than business in France: it’s a mythology, a secular religion, a source of national pride, especially during Fashion Week, when the country recalls its history as the birthplace of haute couture.
In recent days, though, in response to the anti-Semitic diatribe by Christian Dior’s creative director, John Galliano, the French have been recalling a far more ominous chapter in their history.
According to witnesses, a drunken Mr. Galliano exploded at a woman seated near him in a Paris bar. “Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead,” he is said to have told her. “Your boots are of the lowest quality, your thighs are of the lowest quality. You are so ugly I don’t want to see you. I am John Galliano!”
Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/opinion/07Garelick.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299506411-2TZsfCXgDl1xqzey4G78KQ
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(874 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
