On Fashion On War

From Guy Trebay’s column in the NY Times:

  • My prediction: Canadian flags on YSL backpacks. “I am not a politician,” Mr [Tom] Ford said, “but at this point I’m embarrassed to be an American.”
  • Majed al-Sabah, who owns Villa Moda, the Barney’s of Kuwait: 1) gets all testy over the anti-war rainbow flags on display during the shows (“I thought that Milan had turned totally gay.”), 2) Comissioned Prada and other designers to make him some caftans (see them here), and 3) wears a diamond-and-ruby pin that says “I love Bush.” Verdict: Gay.
  • Who’da thought? Famous-for-poufs, Pucci designer Christian Lacroix turns out to be a philosopher statesman. Note to all other designers: Be quiet and let, um, Lacroix..lead the, um, crusade.

    During the Second World War, Mr. Lacroix went on, his mother was a girl of 16 living in occupied Arles. To signal her own resistance, she incorporated a fragment of color from the forbidden French flag in her clothes every day. “A little bit of blue, red or white in each outfit,” Mr. Lacroix said, adding that if there was anything that decades in the design world had taught him, it was that symbols, however small, can sometimes surprise you with their weight.