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FASHION

French fashion label rallies to support press freedom from Trump

Paris fashion stood up for press freedom Saturday with two brands linking up with the New York Times to show their unease at Donald Trump's attacks on the media.

Published: 21 January 2018 05:05 CET
French fashion label rallies to support press freedom from Trump
Etudes studios owners Aurelien Arbet (L) and Jeremie Egry (C) and designer Jose Lamali (R), salute after the show during the men's Fashion Week for the Fall/Winter 2018/2019 collection in Paris on Sat
Japanese brand Sacai and French label Etudes used slogans from the newspaper's “The Truth is Hard” advertising campaign on their clothes in their men's winter collections.
 
Sacai designer Chitose Abe included all 19 lines of the declaration issued by the Times last February, to defend itself and other outlets from persistent attacks by the US president, on the back of a T-shirt and hoodie. She wore a black one herself emblazoned with the Times' logo and the lines,”Truth. It's more important now than ever.”
 
Abe told AFP that her stance was not political as such “but I do think what the New York Times said is right and that's why I wanted to collaborate and support them.
 
“It is also about the importance of tolerance and accepting everyone… and about goodness,” she added.
 
Fashion houses tend to be notoriously circumspect about politics and designers are rarely drawn to comment upon it. But Abe, one of Japan's most important female designers, also included bags and clothes inspired by Sioux and Native American art in her show.    
 
Sioux activists long resisted an oil pipeline across their ancestral lands in North Dakota until Trump used the US Army to push it through.
 
 'Don't mess with me, Russia'
 
The young French label Etudes also used the New York Times' logo on scarves in another collaboration with the newspaper.
 
Designers Jeremy Egry and Aurelien Arbet told AFP that they did not “want to send a political message but obviously we want to support freedom of expression.”
 
Russia also came in for oblique criticism on the catwalk at the Vetements show late on Friday. The ultra-hip label, which has been a major Paris trendsetter, is led by Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia, who had to flee his home in Abkhazia as a child when Russian supported a separatist revolt in the region in 1993.
 
Moscow later invaded Georgia in 2008 to support another breakaway region, South Ossetia.
 
“Russia don't you mess around with me,” read one of the collages on the T-shirts that the arch-provocateur Gvasalia sent out. He later told reporters that the collages had been made by randomly by cutting up “some of my favourite T-shirts. It wasn't done on purpose,” he added with a smile.
 
Hollywood star Robert Pattinson and supermodel Bella Hadid headed a starry guest list at the Dior men's show, which stood up for the virtues of classy tailoring in a world of streetwear slackness.
 
Belgian designer Kris Van Assche sent out a few grown-up men and grey beards to spice up his squadron of young models and show that style had no age limit to at Dior.
 
“We live in a time when they say tailoring is over, everything has to be loose, baggy and oversized,” he told AFP.
 
“But I think it is important to insist on our values, what makes us different from the others,” he said of his collection, which mixed his new, nipped doubled breasted suits with plenty of tailored streetwear.
 
By AFP's Fiachra Gibbons

FASHION

Paris exhibition celebrates 100 years of French Vogue

A new exhibition in Paris will tell the story of 100 years of French Vogue - from the post-war 'New Look' of Christian Dior through the sexual liberation of the 1960s to the dangling-cigarette waifs of the 2000s.

Published: 7 October 2021 08:21 CEST
French Vogue celebrates 100 years
French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance. 

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