Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. -- Oscar Wilde

We don't usually comment on what passes for fashion from France. Yet we can't help but remark on the remarkable ugliness of the latest French schmatter.

HAUTE COUTURE: VALENTINO, GALLIANO BOTH SEE RED

PARIS January 24, 2006 (AFP) - Italian designer Valentino and John Galliano for Christian Dior* highlighted two opposing faces of haute couture on Monday; one based on classic, red carpet-ready elegance, the other revealing a more experimental approach for the 21st century.

FRENCH FASHION TERROR
Next Year's Inspiration, Vichy France
[Photo Credits: F. Bouchon/Le Figaro]

More of these beauties here. [Hat tip: Carine]

The world stops to take instruction from the fashion princes of France. Instruction on what women want. Apparently women want peek-a-boo pantied camel-toes. They want to be tarted up in carpet remanents and fabric tailings. They want exterior corsets perforated with industrial-sized grommets and a decorative vestibular clamp biting into their crotches. They want to be upholstered in stiff polished leather and a 5-pound crucifix on a navy-grade anchor chain round their twig-like necks. They want the pallor of heroin addicts. They want manga-eyes.

They want to look ridiculous.

And ugly.

Only the perspicacious French could reveal these hitherto dark wants in women.

Earlier, British designer John Galliano dipped into revolutionary France... First out was a blood-red embroidered satin cape providing a taster of what was to follow — Galliano said in his crimson-coloured show notes that "Red is the New Libertine".

And of course women want to be associated with the French Revolution, a social experiment that pointedly excluded women and cut short those who wouldn't quietly be excluded. The color chip, blood red, is correct, conjuring up the handiwork of the political class that formulated the modern practices of state terror,** the show trial, and the speedy sentence.

The garments had a lightness about them, created out of masses of fine fabrics such as tulle, chiffon and taffeta that was often heavily draped and seemingly effortlessly sculpted.

Other than the topless woman with the veiled nipples -- is there a woman's silhouette buried anywhere in these fashions? Haute couture once celebrated the female form and feminine beauty. Now creatively spent couturiers hire outside talent to design unwearable and gimmicky fashions that hang as well on a hook as a woman.

* Ironically these Italian and English creations pass the French sniff test for native product, while an original French production is disqualified because of a whiff of American dollars.

** "What we learn from the study of the Great [French] Revolution is that it was the source of all the present communist, anarchist and socialist conceptions."
-- Prince Piotr Kropotkin, writing in 1909 on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution

PFFT (What is this?): Bizarro 4 | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

Ce défilé est une honte ! C'est une nouvelle preuve de la destruction que l'anglosphère organise chez nous.
Chassons le Britannique Galliano hors de chez nous à coups de pompes dans le derrière !

Good luck for your catastrophic GM and for your country in Irak !

Oh my....

Earlier, British designer John Galliano dipped into revolutionary France

I think here too; notice the 1789 around one of the "twigs" neck?

Good thing that American girls are FAT so they can't fit into these things :)

In the past, half the models on the catwalk were from US and UK. The present lot must be all french, including bit part actors from zombie and vampire B movies.

Anti,

Range against the US and UK while your zeropa house is burning down. What a maroon!

Yes, and as Europe starts, well I should say continues, to burn ABAY still lists among his “favorites” Venezuela and Cuba.

Let’s look at which countries yesterday, in a 27-3 vote at the IAEA voted to not report Iran to the UN Security Council. Yes, Syria, CUBA, and VENEZUELA.

How soon before ABAY, our own little Chavista, who thinks that Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and other dictators, totalitarian fist-waiving tin-pot pinheads are the grandest because they utter a few anti-American remarks, begins to enumerate to us the virtues of Syria?

Fresh off his little trip to Spain in an attempt to purchase weapons, Chavez announced his plans to establish a 2.8 million-strong civilian militia. To keep the US away, we presume he will say….and those, like ABAY with a taste for populist ideology and revolutionary red will rejoice in this “stab” at America. Who cares about his egregious misuses of power such as his going after his political opponents on la lista (a list of voters who opposed Chavez)? Any guesses on why that No vote went down? All we need is for Iran to sell nukes to Chavez.

Now we see that Hamas is getting ready to see if they can jump on the anti-US South American bandwagon by taking a victory lap in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia (yet another of ABAY favorites) and Venezuela.

I can hardly wait to see how wet ABAY panties get at the anti-US rhetoric that will be spewing out from these parlays.

Here's a little hint for you ABAY: Chavez and his crew in SA are planning to align with the muslim world in their anti-US scheme. Which side are you going to be on?