French label Guy Laroche has raised eyebrows
by celebrating prostitution in its Paris fashion week show just a day after
police in the city raided a modelling agency linked to the Epstein scandal.
Designer Richard Rene defended “cocking a snook” at political correctness
by lionising the notorious French pimp, Fernande Grudet, known as Madame
Claude, and the band of sexually “free girls” she ran during the 1960s and
1970s.
Detectives searched the offices of Karin Models, which was formerly owned
by French tycoon Jean-Luc Brunel, who has been accused of procuring young
girls for disgraced US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
They also carried out a raid Tuesday on Epstein’s luxury Paris home not far
from the Arc de Triomphe, a judicial source told AFP.
The New York financier committed suicide last month in jail while facing
charges of sexually trafficking minors.
Madame Claude operated a high-class call girl agency in Paris in the 1960s
and 1970s that counted several heads of state among its clients.
She claimed to have helped the French government by passing secrets
revealed under the sheets to its intelligence services.
Most of the girls on her books were former models and actresses.
Rene told AFP that the show was a reaction to what he felt was a growing
atmosphere of uptight puritanism.
‘You can’t say anything’
“It’s cocking a snoot at the times which we live in, when you can’t say
anything anymore or do anything. I find that troubling.
“I thought it would be interesting to give a nod to all the boy and girls
who sold their bodies and who are often denigrated, and to talk of that time
of freedom and (sexual) liberty,” the designer added.
“We shouldn’t mix things up. #MeToo is about sexual aggression, and people
being forced. These were people who decided to sell their bodies. It was a
free choice,” he added.
Rene was inspired to do the show because the label’s founder, Laroche,
designed the clothes for the 1977 French film, “Madame Claude”, based on
Grudet’s bestselling memoirs.
A sequel was made four years later.
With US actress Eva Longoria of “Desperate Housewives” fame watching in the
front row, Rene sent out a collection of often tight white and brown
1970s-inspired power dresses and jackets with large shoulders, often decorated
with prints of the label’s logo from the time.
He said it was a homage to girls that for “a few 500 franc notes added to
the lustre of France”.
The old French banknote also appeared on swimming costumes in the spring
summer collection and on dresses and boots.
“I found it quite funny,” Rene said. “When you had 500 francs then you
thought you were rich.
“It is a part of (our) history,” he added.
“Madame Claude offered her girls as a luxury (service), not on the streets.
You have to give people the liberty to do what they want,” the designer said.
Photos : Guy Laroche SS20, Catwalkpictures
