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The Arab Makeover of the Champs Elysees
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19779 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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3 / 1991 |
1,249 Words |
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A. Addison
A. Addison lives in Paris and writes on Paris fashion. |
There's been quite a change in the look of the Champs Elysees over the last decade, particularly in the stretch lying between the Arc de Triomphe at the top and the Rond Point at midpoint. This is where the movie theaters--over forty; Parisians like their cinema--automobile showrooms, airlines, cafes, kiosks, and myriad shopping arcades geared to the omnipresent tourist abound.
Time was, well up into the seventies, when the second language of the Champs, in shops and cafes, was English--a reminder of nearly two hundred years of English and American tourism. With the fall of the dollar and the rise of the yen, Japanese signs naturally enough popped up everywhere. But far surpassing Japanese, the second language of the Champs Elysees has become Arabic. And the flavor of Fance's most famous avenue and its shops has taken on the faint but distinct air of a souk.
Up and down the shopping belt of the avenue you find small clusters of women cloaked in black from head to toe, Vuitton bags swinging from their arms, Maud Frizon pumps peeping out from under their dark robes. They sweep into one of the elegant shops, Charles Jourdain for instance, to emerge with four or five large plastic bags crammed with shoe boxes (the Jourdain shoes sell at the equivalent of $180 to $300 a pair).
Time was when Jourdain shoes were fairly simply designed, with minor variations from season to season in the shape of the heel or height of the throat. Recently shoes have been turning up in a galaxy of rainbow colors: buttercup yellow, pumpkin orange, violet, kelly green, scarlet. The shoes are not just bright of hue but sport all manner of gold-colored ornamentation.
All the clothing stores along the avenue reflect this vestimentary invasion. In the windows, mannequins stand in gossamer veils and floating scarves in cerise, weighted down with intricate gold and silver embroidery. Sequins are everywhere. Gowns in shiny satin with the ever-present gold embroidery drape other mannequins.
The world of high fashion, where one evening gown can sell for $30,000 to $40,000, has naturally been aware of who can pay that kind of money for clothes and has been willing to design for the customers who seek their services. All the haute couture designers have as a matter of course done a little dabbling in oriental influences over the years. An embroidered bolero here. A pair of harem pants there. That sort of thing was to be expected, along with sundry other dippings into
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